Faced with even four-figure sums in energy bills consumers risk ending up in the coming months, the economy minister said GermanyRobert Habek, and acknowledged that this could lead to social collapse, “although this should not happen.”

In an interview with ARD and youth broadcaster ZDF Funk, Mr. Hambeck said that his party, the Greens, “is doing well, but they should have a little more patience”, saying that he gets an average of six hours of sleep, but when he government committee, he does not sleep at all and believes that the most important issue for young people in Germany is climate change. If he could hide anything from his life before politics, it would be anonymity, he said, and singled out political communication as the worst part of his job.

“On average, consumers have to wait for a kilowatt-hour price increase of 30 to 60 cents, but if we are good and revise the system, perhaps the situation will get better. With natural gas, the situation is more complicated, we are threatened with tripling or even quadrupling of costs,” Mr. Habek said and admitted that this could cause social disintegration.

“Many are outraged by the gas tax,” he said, and, in response to a question about young people’s disappointment in the government’s climate policy, he asked to be patient until the end of the parliamentary term, as now, he said, the discussion about the crisis dominates. Even keeping the lignite plants in operation, Mr Hambeck called it “a climate policy mistake, but a necessary one” because of the conditions. “If we survive this winter, there is a good chance that the situation in Germany will be much easier in the summer and next winter,” he added.

In response to questions about Ukraine, Mr. Khambek reiterated his support for the transfer of heavy weapons. “I don’t understand how we can say that Ukrainians are fighting for freedom in Europe and leave them alone,” he said characteristically and stressed that military and economic support for Germany would continue.

Asked why young people should be optimistic about the future despite the crisis, the economy minister referred to “dictators like Vladimir Putin who won’t fall with elections but will be overthrown, and that’s why they’re afraid.” The opposite of our system, he noted, is democracy, in which you have to be active, participate, vote. “Sometimes it doesn’t go well. But on the one hand, we have a system in which fear dominates, and on the other, a system in which there is courage and hope for the future,” he concluded.

^{Source: APE-MEB}