German Court Delays Vote on Controversial Bill to Phase Out Gas Heat Systems

(Bloomberg) -- Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition suffered an embarrassing blow over key climate legislation after Germany’s top court stopped lawmakers from voting this week on a controversial ban on fossil fuel heating systems.

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In an unprecedented intervention in the legislative process, the Federal Constitutional Court ruled that lawmakers in the lower house of parliament must be given more time to assess the complex plans. The decision delays the passage of the contentious legislation, which exposed fractures in Scholz’s three-party alliance and contributed to declining approval ratings.

To put an end to months of in-fighting and provide households and companies with a measure of clarity, Scholz’s Social Democrats, the environmentalist Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats had hoped to ram the bill through the lower house in its final session before the summer break.

The court though granted a petition from a member of the main opposition Christian Democrats and postponed Friday’s planned vote in an emergency interim ruling. The move is intended to allow more time to look into whether the lawmaker’s rights are infringed by the parliament’s fast-track process. A final ruling will be issued later this year.

In a joint statement published Thursday after talks in Berlin, the parliamentary groups of the three ruling parties said they now plan to submit the bill to parliament for a vote when lawmakers return in early September.

Although the legislation is still likely to come into force next year as planned, it’s a bitter setback for Economy Minister Robert Habeck, the bill’s main architect. The Greens’ vice chancellor has been the target of blistering attacks for months over the plan, which the Bild tabloid labeled “Habeck’s heating hammer.”

“This shows that climate protection can’t be achieved with a crowbar, but only through effective and thorough deliberation in the German Bundestag,” Friedrich Merz, head of the CDU, said in a statement. “Olaf Scholz and his government would be well advised to use the ruling to pause for thought.”

Read More: German Greens Are in Crisis Like the Rest of Scholz’s Coalition

The public outcry over the heating law has been cited as one reason for the recent rise in support for the far-right Alternative for Germany.

The anti-immigrant party, which is particularly strong in the former communist eastern regions, questions whether global warming is caused by humans and has been an energetic opponent of the legislation.

In several polls published in recent weeks, the AfD has leapfrogged Scholz’s SPD into second place behind the CDU/CSU bloc, with the Greens in fourth.

“The attempt by the coalition parliamentary groups to push through their half-baked, bungling law with a crowbar represents a gross disregard for parliament and its rights,” AfD caucus leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla said in a statement, calling for the complete withdrawal of the law.

In recent days, members of the CDU-led conservatives have vowed to overturn the legislation if they get elected after the next national election in 2025.

Advocates of the bill, which would essentially ban all new fossil-fuel boilers, say it’s crucial for Germany to meet its goal of slashing carbon emissions by two-thirds by 2030 from 1990 levels. Critics of the measure contend it goes too far and would impose excessive costs on low-income families.

Germany’s courts have intervened in climate policy in the past. In 2021, the constitutional court in Karlsruhe forced Angela Merkel’s administration to revise its climate targets, ruling that the government was putting future generations at risk by delaying the bulk of planned cuts in greenhouse gas emissions to after 2030.

Read More: Merkel’s Conservatives Suffer Climate Setback After Court Rebuke

Scholz’s coalition parties reached a deal on the bill last month, after watering down some of the provisions. A draft, however, didn’t reach members of parliament in time to give them at least 14 days to consider it before a vote is required, according to CDU lawmaker Thomas Heilmann, who filed the complaint.

The legislation has been a particular source of tension between the Greens and the FDP. Habeck accused his coalition partners of going back on their word after earlier delays in sending the law to parliament, while the FDP’s parliamentary group pushed back, saying it needed to ensure the heating law was economical and feasible for utilities and municipalities.

Wolfgang Kubicki, a deputy FDP leader who has repeatedly clashed with the Greens, said the decision by the constitutional court is a “deserved reward” for the party and accused it of putting “an inexplicable pressure into this procedure.”

--With assistance from Karin Matussek, Joe Ryan and Patrick Donahue.

(Updates with statement from coalition parties in fifth paragraph)

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