BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has promised efforts for cheap energy and more investment in Germany. At a party conference in Berlin, he brought up the idea of a "grid fee brake", financed from the federal budget. He appealed to the CDU/CSU to support this before the general election. "This cannot wait, because every day we fail to act, jobs are at stake." From 2025, the SPD then wants a fixed cap on grid fees. This is the SPD's offer for competitive industrial electricity prices.

Scholz also suggested an "investment bonus similar to that in the USA" to encourage private investment. However, he was against small-scale incentive programs as well as blanket tax cuts, as the CDU/CSU wanted. "It reminds me of a doctor who always prescribes the same pills to his patients, regardless of whether they have a cough or a broken foot." A doctor like that would have his license revoked, Scholz said./vsr/DP/mis