During a tour of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) in the garden of the Chancellery, there was an incident at the government’s open day. Two demonstrators stood next to Scholz on Sunday wanting a selfie, but then took off their tops, revealing calls for a gas embargo on Russia.
“Gas embargo now,” the two women had written on their bare chests. They were immediately pushed aside by security guards.
The federal government has so far rejected a gas embargo against Russia on the grounds that a secure energy supply cannot otherwise be guaranteed. However, Russia, for its part, has now greatly reduced deliveries.
During a public discussion, Scholz also referred to alternative import routes, including new liquid gas terminals, of which “we can hope that we can put the first ones into operation at the beginning of next year and others over the course of the year.” “Then we have our problem of security of supply solved sometime in early 2024,” the Chancellor continued.
The federal government’s open day also drew thousands of people to the government district in Berlin on Sunday. Long queues formed in front of the Federal Chancellery and some ministries. Chancellor Scholz, Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck (Greens) and other ministers answered questions from citizens and presented their work.
During a conversation with citizens, the Federal Chancellor showed himself to be a fan of the nine-euro ticket. It was “one of the best ideas we had,” said Scholz. The inexpensive nationwide ticket for local transport has shown what is possible – and also where there have been difficulties with train travel.
Scholz said ticket purchases were too complicated for many citizens because of the different tariff structures. Larger tariff associations and simpler structures make sense. Transport Minister Volker Wissing is now advising the federal states on what conclusions to draw from these experiences. When asked by citizens, Scholz did not comment on a possible successor to the nine-euro ticket, which expires at the end of August.
Federal Finance Minister Lindner, in turn, rejected calls for an extension of the nine-euro ticket. “That would cost 14 billion euros,” said Lindner on Sunday in the “Report from Berlin” of the ARD capital studio.
This money would be missing elsewhere for education or for investments in the rail network. The idea of free local public transport is “not financially viable”. From Lindner’s point of view, that would also be “unsustainable” and would ultimately “not lead to ecologically responsible decisions”.
The government’s usual open days in August had been paused for two years due to the corona pandemic. For the first time, the traffic light coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP presented itself in this context – under the motto “Democracy invites”. It was not only in the garden of the Chancellery that citizens crowded together in the clear summer weather.
Ministries and authorities had already opened their doors to visitors on Saturday, but on the first day it was raining at times. The government drew a positive interim balance on Saturday evening, but did not name any visitor numbers.
On social media channels, conspiracy ideologues and opponents of the state anti-corona measures had occasionally called for the event to be used for expressions of dissatisfaction.
