Merz says Germany’s energy supply for winter secured despite half-empty storage facilities

Merz says Germany’s energy supply for winter secured despite half-empty storage facilities The German chancellor believes that initiating frantic state purchases now, as demanded by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, would be a mistakeBERLIN, September 9. /TASS/. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said that the country’s energy supply for the winter is fully secured despite storage facilities being half-full. "We are receiving clear indications that Germany’s energy supply, particularly its gas supply, is secured for the winter. And it is precisely on this that the federal government is basing its supply strategy," he said, speaking in the Bundestag. In his view, initiating frantic state purchases now, as demanded by the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, would be a mistake. As Merz noted, this "would only cause gas prices to soar so high that supplies would simply become unaffordable." Ultimately, the chancellor said, this would harm consumers. At the same time, Merz acknowledged that serious mistakes had been made in Germany’s energy policy in the past. "Shutting down power plants in Germany, particularly nuclear power plants, at a time when backup capacities were not available was, at the very least, a wrong sequence of actions," he concluded. Earlier, Alice Weidel, co-chair of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, sharply criticized the German government's energy policy under Merz, calling for the resumption of Russian gas supplies amid low domestic storage levels. Germany’s gas storage levels are currently at a relatively low point of just over 54%. The country’s government is relying on pipeline gas from Norway as well as liquefied natural gas terminals. At the same time, gas storage operators are calling on policymakers for subsidies and incentives to make gas injection more attractive. In 2022, the state intervened in the situation by purchasing gas directly due to the threat of a supply crisis related to the conflict in Ukraine. 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