Olaf Scholz has had enough

Olaf Scholz. Wikipedia Commons

The Story

Olaf Scholz broke through an impasse in his coalition on Monday by making use of his ‘Chancellor’s veto’. It was a dramatic and highly unusual move. No Chancellor in at least 40 years has used the veto to impose a decision on their coalition.

In a brief letter to his ministers, Scholz informed them that all three of Germany’s remaining nuclear reactors would be kept online until April.

Scholz’ intervention was a bitter blow for the Green party, who’ve refused to move away from an insistence that Germany doesn’t need nuclear this winter - despite the near unanimous opinion of experts to the contrary.

A resolution passed at the Green party conference at the weekend, where they voted to allow two reactors to be kept as an “emergency reserve”, appears to have been the last straw. The eco party insisted that this resolution was itself a generous compromise and refused to move any further.

The liberal Free Democrats (FDP), the third member of the coalitio…