Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of the SPD announced that in the current economic crisis, he plans to pursue the excessive profits made by oil and gas corporations through stronger antitrust measures. According to Klingbeil on Monday during the ZDF Heute Journal, this represents a significant shift from the situation concerning the fuel discount in 2022. He stated, “We have now initiated antitrust procedures to ensure that this can be checked more rigorously when we see the oil and gas corporations attempting to generate unjustified profits during this crisis”.
This statement follows criticism from Economy Minister Katherina Reiche of the CDU, who had previously labeled Klingbeil’s proposals for a windfall tax as “expensive, weakly effective, and constitutionally questionable”.
During his appearance on ZDF, Klingbeil also expressed satisfaction regarding recent political developments, noting, “I am first pleased that we found solutions over the weekend in the meeting of the four party chairs, even in the coalition council. And that many of the ideas I fought for are now reflected in the coalition’s resolutions. We should not focus on the differences, but on what unites us-that is what people are expecting right now”.