Several high-ranking SPD officials have criticized CDU leader Friedrich Merz for allegedly putting the future of the steel industry in Germany at risk. “Friedrich Merz is chopping at the steel industry in Germany” said Anke Rehlinger, the Minister-President of Saarland, to the “Stern” on Tuesday. “Who still wants to turn back now is destroying billion-dollar sums and tens of thousands of jobs.”
The source of the outrage is a statement made by Merz at the works council conference of the CDA, the labor wing of the Christian Democrats, on Monday in Bochum. “I don’t believe in green steel” Merz said. “Where is the hydrogen supposed to come from? And the steel is still expensive afterwards. Where is the money supposed to come from?” Merz said he would look into the issue, but left the question of how to do so open.
The SPD chairman, Lars Klingbeil, joined in Rehlinger’s criticism. “It’s not a matter of what Merz believes. Steelworkers are setting their hopes on promises and support” Klingbeil told the magazine. The Social Democrats are now calling for a clarification from the Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia, Hendrik Wüst, a friend of Merz’s in the party. “Until now, I had understood Hendrik Wüst as well, that it’s a consensus” Klingbeil said. Wüst’s black-green state government is supporting the reorganization of Thyssenkrupp’s works.
SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich said Merz is mocking the companies that have invested billions in climate neutrality to remain competitive. “After he forced the auto industry onto the path of the burner, he is now positioning himself against the future of the steel industry” Mützenich told the magazine. “Friedrich Merz is a politician of the past.