During the past national election campaign, the Greens called for a “climate ministry” as the coordination center of all expenses by the government. That was generally rejected by the coalition partners, the Social Democrats and Free Democrats.However, the structure of the economics ministry in the new government is coming very close to the original design by the Greens: it is a super ministry for economics and climate, led by Robert Habeck of the Greens.
Two of the three assistant economic ministers come from the radical Green Deal current of German politics: 1) Sven Giegold, Green Party member of the European Parliament, who has just gathered 70,000 online signatures against the French proposal to include nuclear power as an energy source with no emissions on the EU Commission’s planned list of “sustainable” energies. Giegold argues that accepting that would absorb investments better made in the so-called renewables (solar and wind) sector.
2) Patrick Graichen, since 2014 at the top of Agora Energiewende (Energy Transition) think tank, which is an influential player in designs for the ecological transformation of the economy, including the exits from nuclear, coal, and gas. Before joining the Agora, Graichen worked in leading positions at the Federal Environment Ministry from 2001 to 2012.
3) The third assistant minister, Udo Phillip, is a man of the Great/Green Reset: coming from Dresdner Bank, he has been a senior partner at EQT, one of the biggest private equity funds in Europe, which he quit in 2015 to co-found the Citizen Initiative Finance Transition together with Green Bundestag member Gerhard Schick—which is calling for fake “bank separation” in order to shift the trillions into the green sector.
