AUGSBURG (dpa-AFX) - The Free State must regain control over hydroelectric power plants on the Isar, Lech, Danube and Main rivers, according to Bavaria's Economics Minister Hubert Aiwanger. "We have to get our foot in the door there," the Free Voters leader said Saturday on the sidelines of a party conference in Augsburg. He added that it must now be clearly signaled to the federal government that Bavaria is interested in the power plants, which were previously owned by the energy company Uniper. He left open whether he meant a complete takeover or just a pro-rata shareholding.

After Uniper got into financial difficulties as a result of the energy crisis, the federal government had taken over the hydroelectric power plants. As a result, the Bavarian Green Party had repeatedly called for a takeover of the power plants by the Free State, and this position was also recently supported by a majority of people in Bavaria in a representative survey. The CSU, which governs with the Free Voters, had not yet explicitly commented on the demands.

In the 1990s, the hydroelectric power plants were sold by the Free State. According to the survey, in retrospect, around 81 percent of respondents consider this decision to be a strategic mistake. Aiwanger also emphasized that he considered the privatization to be a mistake that could now be corrected. In the federal government, Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is responsible for this - here he will specifically seek talks, at the same time these are also underway at the working level./had/DP/he