Die Lupe Online

Eflad · August 15, 2023, 2:00pm

Politics, Opinion

The dispute

Since last week, the differences between the parties in the coalition have shown. A crisis of medium range has set not only the people but the economy in dismay and anger.
Alexander Schützi
Die Lupe Nr. 32/2023, 05.08.2023

They [the Greens] should stop being so dramatic and ideological. Instead they should try something called ‘pragmatism’.
– Arno Kuhn, Liberal faction chief on 02.08.

A half an hour long drive to the west of Münnen situates, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful paysage there is in central Lorgder. I have many memories from this place. As a child my parents always brought me here for a pique-nique. I remember running to the lake with my dog, a small dachshund. I always called him 'the sausage'. I have a photo of us in that lake. My dad was just throwing my other dad into the lake. We were always left alone and I never got why until I grew up a bit. Wanting to flee the never sleeping cities problems, I ventured towards that same spot to relive the moment. Just driving there made me happier than I was in the last couple of days, due to the memories. I parked on a new parking lot, making my camera ready to shoot a similar photo. 'The sausage' or Jan as it was his real name, jumped out of the car. He needed a second but then knew exactly where we were. He was old and this was me making him relieve what I thought were his finest memories. Making my way I wasn't met by the lake, the beach or the woods but by a fence. A couple of minutes later I found myself on the front entrance to a huge power plant. Two giant, steaming towers were looking down on me. I had the feeling they were laughing at me, even though no one could hear them. "Damn it. Who put this up here‽" I yelled after I hit myself on the curb. The security at the door explained where I was. This was the 'West Nuclear Power Plant - Honigsee'. I was immediately angry that it they wouldn't allow me to the lake. After trying to bargain, unsuccessfully, I made my way back to my car. "Damn it again. The government is destroying our nature and memories by placing these colossal power plants out there." Not long after did my pager ring and on it were the words "MOE & LfE FC brawl over NuPo!" meaning that the Minister of Energy and the Liberal faction chief were going at each other, only figuratively, over nuclear power. This meant back to business. My next days were comprised of research, reading, more research and analysis. What I found out is that truth is rarely pure and never simple.

»I have a feeling they stopped trying.«

This all started when the Liberal faction chief made the remark that they are looking forward to making nuclear power a bigger part of the Efladian energy mix. This got to the minister of energy the same day, just a couple of hours later. An person from the inner circle of the minister said that he was raging at the faction chief for going on the record with such a remark. Immediately after he called the Liberal chief and angrily explained that in the coalition agreement they agreed to the 25% clause and to consider nuclear only as bridge energy towards a completely green energy mix. He demanded that Kuhn (LfE faction chief) corrects the record ASAP. This did not sit well on Kuhn who apparently just hung up. This got leaked to the press and then Kuhn said the now famous words quoted above. If the call didn’t escalate the situation, this certainly did. Minister Dref reportedly initiated a meeting between all of the green ministers and the party leadership. Why did Kuhn do that? To irritate the minister, the Greens? Who is actually this mysterious Kuhn, who almost never appeared on any headlines. Until now.
In a small place in rural Sweori sits a village where agriculture dominates the view. Tractors, cows, hay everywhere. In a school in the centre of the village, on the first floor there is a window in the back. The story goes that Kuhn, as a teenager, instigated a fight over the class president, as he felt the vote was rigged and threw the voting box out of the window, revealing that there were far more votes than classmates. At least that’s the way Kuhn and his former teacher tell the story. Whether it’s true or not, we can’t know. No one from his former class wanted to speak with me. Some of the called him a “self entitled prat!” After his primary education, Kuhn attended the Selpe university, studying economics and later management. His uncle worked at NuCorps, back then a state owned firm, and introduced him to the manager. Directly after his degree he started as a junior advisor to the manager, whose name later became famous in the privatisation fiasco: Goldberg. He famously pushed for privatisation of the company so that they could manage better prices. This turned out to be false as prices slowly rose year after year. The only ones profiting off of it were the managers. Goldberg had to step down as a result of the media coverage. One key person is forgotten in that story. Reading the texts from that time, several independent news agencies reported that the advisory committee had worked out the plan to lower prices, which led to privatisation. It’s chairman: Kuhn. He was the next who rose to the manager seat, following Goldberg. After leaving NuCorps amidst his election as a member of the Senate, his connections to the leading figures haven’t severed. On the contrary, he is reportedly still good friends with the current manager Schweizer, as they often go fishing together.
However, the Greens aren’t in the clear. Minister Dref has his connections to NuCorps as well. He has been friends to the special advisor to the manager. The latest comment by Kuhn was hinting at a the latest employment of Anna Herber, his sister’s husband’s second niece, as a state secretary. Her sister works at Globus TV - a private TV network - and has already met Dref before, at an annual party of the network. Apart from working under the former minister for foreign affairs, Herber has no political experience at all. The ministry cited “perspicacity, intelligence and connections to the economy” as some reasons why she was employed. All these ad hominem, however, are distracting from the real problem. The energy mix of Eflad and its renewability. Currently not even a half of the mix comes from renewable energy sources. At this pace, we will not be able to achieve our goal of 100% renewable until 2035. The government’s own environmental agency, the EfEA, has released a report criticising the coalition for the current standstill. After a year and four months “we are still at the same place we were” concludes the report. The report is the cause which has escalated the discussion. The report lists nuclear power as a possibility to be a bridge towards other renewable technologies. A new law in making would differentiate between Brückentechnologie (Bridge Technology), Zukunftstechnologie (Technology of the future) and auslaufende Technologie (Phased out technology). After this plan, nuclear power would be set as a phased out technology. However, the Liberals see a different potential in its future, as a technology of the future. Several scientific advisors have said that it would be necessary to build more normal nuclear power plants and several mega-plants to have them produce enough power. Their future is uncertain.
The dispute nothing else but a portrayal of personal interest and politics.

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