Germany’s conservative leaders push for nuclear power to stay on as the country breaks from Russian fuels.

BERLIN — Germany’s leading conservative politicians were the last remaining in the country on Thursday as part of urging the government to abandon its planned withdrawal from nuclear power amid growing fears of a looming energy crisis from Russia’s war in Ukraine. visit one of the nuclear power plants in

Germany is poised to be one of the worst-hit countries by European efforts to wean itself from Russian fossil fuels and punish Russian aggression. , in particular the opposition centre-right Christian Democrats and the business-oriented Liberal Democrats, one of the government’s coalition parties, are calling on Germany to keep its past three nuclear power plants operational.

Chancellor Angela Merkel moved to phase out the country’s nuclear power generation in 2011 after Japan’s earthquake and tsunami led to overheating and explosion of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. Merkel’s successor, Chancellor Olaf Scholz, is delighted to visit the Bavarian Isar 2 factory on Thursday by Bavarian Southern State leader Martin Soder and Christian Democrat leader Friedrich Merz It was done after suggesting it might. she reverses her decision.

Scholz said Wednesday that given the current situation, it “makes sense” to keep Germany’s last three nuclear power plants operational past the December 31, 2022 decommissioning date. Such a move would not be dictated by the government, but by a series of stress tests on Germany’s power system to see if the power plants are needed and whether they can operate safely past their closure date. he claimed. .

Germans are among the most wary of nuclear energy in Europe. In a sign of how controversial the nuclear issue is in this country, the leaders of his own party and his coalition partners almost immediately refuted his remarks.

Social Democrat leader Saskia Esken said on Wednesday that she was “not going to fix the nuclear energy phase-out”. Environment Minister Annalena Baerbock said extending the life of power plants was “not an option”.

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Scholz emphasized Wednesday that keeping the three nuclear power plants operational is primarily to meet the needs of the region in Bavaria. It could face severe energy shortages, which could be mitigated by keeping the Isar 2 power plant running.

But Sader said before his visit to Isar 2 that Scholz’s government had moved too slowly. He claimed the government, which has been in power since December, had “had hesitated for too long.”

“Why are you half-hearted again?” Mr. Sader told German news agency DPA: “We need to make a decision now.”