Speaking to German broadcaster ARD on Friday morning, Künast said her party remained open to exploring working with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU but that they would not forge a coalition that would reverse Germany’s phase-out of nuclear power.
“We stand behind ending nuclear power and there will be no backtracking, not a single centimetre,” she said.
CDU Secretary General Ronald Pofalla recently said that the conservatives had determined the Greens were now prepared to admit the decision by the last government to phase out nuclear energy was wrong. The Greens were then the junior coalition partner of the centre-left Social Democrats – who are currently junior partners to the CDU.
Künast called Pofalla’s comments blatant lies.
“I’ve never in my life met privately with Mr Pofalla,” Künast told ARD, adding that the conservatives appeared to be signalling they had no interest in forging a coalition with the Greens after next year’s election.
Traditionally political opponents, the Greens and Christian Democrats have been testing the waters for cooperating at the federal level after the city-state of Hamburg cobbled together Germany’s first so-called “black-green” coalition earlier this year. But whereas the Greens are set against nuclear power, the CDU sees it as an environmentally friendly alternative to help combat global warming.
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