BERLIN/DÜSSELDORF (dpa-AFX) - For months, German Economics Minister Robert Habeck has been fighting for a state-subsidized cheaper industrial electricity price to prevent companies from relocating. But the Green politician bites with it above all with the coalition partner FDP on granite. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) is also skeptical. A hopeless battle?

For Habeck, the months-long standoff has not yet been decided. At an industry conference on Tuesday in Berlin at the Radialsystem cultural center, he said perhaps the deliberations on the 2024 federal budget, which are now entering the home stretch, would provide some clarity. "But I can't promise that either." Habeck again put the chances of there being an industrial electricity price at 50:50.

But is that just expedient optimism? Because almost at the same time, German Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) rejected an industrial electricity price - again. "There is no financing available on a large scale," Lindner said after a visit to the FDP state parliamentary group in Düsseldorf. "It is simply not financially feasible."

Months of dispute over industrial electricity price

Back in May, Habeck proposed his concept for a state-subsidized discounted industrial "bridge electricity price." The reason is the high electricity prices in international comparison. In the long term, industry should benefit from low-cost electricity from renewable energies. However, because measures to achieve this need time, there is to be a subsidized "bridge electricity price" in an interim phase until 2030. According to Habeck's concept, this would cost around 25 to 30 billion euros. According to his ideas, the money for this should come from the Economic Stabilization Fund (WSF) - a special pot of the federal government financed by debt, from which above all the energy price brakes are paid.

The unions in particular want an industrial electricity price and otherwise warn of an exodus of companies. "We already perceive that energy-intensive industrial production is being relocated and discontinued," said the second chairman of IG Metall, Jürgen Kerner, at the industry conference. "The federal government has been conducting an open debate about the bridge electricity price for months, with no result in sight." The decision to provide temporary relief for energy-intensive industries is long overdue, he said. No country is as dependent on the economic success of its industry as Germany, he said.

FDP counters

Lindner warned of a distortion of competition between small and medium-sized businesses and industry in the event of an industrial electricity price. The FDP also rejects financing via the WSF. Instead, Lindner again proposed a reduction in the electricity tax: "From Bafog recipients to pensioners, from craft businesses to manufacturing industries, everyone would benefit." On the other hand, he said, it could not be that citizens and small and medium-sized businesses subsidized the price of electricity for a few corporations. "That's not fair." If the traffic light coalition agrees on a reduction of the electricity tax, the financial means for it would be found, Lindner assured. He said he already had ideas in connection with the so-called climate and transformation fund.

Habeck made it clear that he was not against a reduction in the electricity tax - but pointed out that energy-intensive industry is generally already exempt from the electricity tax.

The FDP has also proposed a different approach. Reinhard Houben, economic policy spokesman for the FDP parliamentary group, said that in order to reduce energy prices for business, direct supply contracts between industrial companies and renewable energy plant operators should be exempt from taxes and other levies. "That would be more effective than an expensive and unfair industrial electricity price."

Industry calls on government to act

Habeck recently presented an industrial strategy. The goal: to preserve industry in Germany in all its diversity, from global corporations to small businesses. Location conditions are changing in competition with the U.S., for example, Habeck said Tuesday, referring to the Inflation Reduction Act - a billion-dollar U.S. subsidy program designed to lure German companies to produce in the U.S. as well. Germany and the EU could no longer afford to draw, Habeck said.

At the conference, he reiterated that the framework conditions had to be improved - meaning less bureaucracy, more digitization, a faster expansion of green electricity, faster planning procedures, more skilled workers through immigration.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) welcomes the strategy in principle. However, BDI President Siegfried Russwurm also said, "Paper is patient, companies need concrete action." For example, he said, the government needs to say what exactly a competitive energy system of the future looks like.

Habeck promised decisions soon. For example, the federal and state governments plan to discuss a pact for faster planning and approval procedures next Monday. Habeck emphasized, "We will deliver on that." But whether the federal government will "deliver" on an industrial electricity price in Habeck's sense seems unlikely right now./mee/DP/stw