German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday called Germany’s phaseout of nuclear energy a “serious strategic mistake,” sharply criticizing previous governments for policies that have made the country’s energy transition the most expensive in the world.
Speaking at a business conference hosted by the Halle-Dessau Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Saxony-Anhalt late Wednesday, Merz took direct aim at the decisions that led to the shutdown of the nation’s last atomic reactors in April 2023. He argued the move, accelerated after the 2011 Fukushima disaster under then-Chancellor Angela Merkel, has left Germany short on reliable baseload power and saddled with soaring costs.
“It was a serious strategic mistake to exit nuclear energy,” Merz said. “If you were going to do it, you should have at least kept the last remaining nuclear power plants in Germany on the grid three years ago, so that we would have had the same electricity generation capacity.”
He added: “We’re now making the most expensive energy transition in the entire world. I don’t know of a second country that makes it as difficult and as expensive for itself as Germany does. We set ourselves a goal that we now have to correct, but we simply don’t have enough energy generation capacity.”
Merz’s blunt remarks echo criticisms he made during last year’s election campaign, when he accused the Green Party of pursuing an “ideologically motivated” energy policy that proved inefficient and overly costly. While he stopped short of calling for a restart of decommissioned conventional reactors, Merz has advocated exploring advanced technologies such as small modular reactors as a way forward.
The Energiewende and Its Challenges
The comments come amid heated debates over Germany’s Energiewende (energy transition), which seeks to shift toward renewables while phasing out both nuclear and eventually coal. The nuclear exit ended more than six decades of atomic power in Europe’s largest economy, a policy rooted in post-Fukushima safety concerns but now blamed by critics for worsening energy price spikes and heavy reliance on imports — especially after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine cut off gas supplies.
Trump’s 2018 Warning Resurfaces
Merz’s admission has revived attention to a striking 2018 moment at the United Nations General Assembly, when then-U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Germany would become “totally dependent on Russian energy” if it did not change course on pipelines like Nord Stream. The remark drew laughter and smirks from the German delegation, as cameras captured the reaction and went viral in newspapers.
The moment resurfaced online in response to Merz’s speech, with a user posting a reminder: “This post reminded me how the German delegation to the U.N reacted and laughed when President Trump warned Germany in 2018”.
Trump, pushing his “America First” agenda and rejecting “globalism” in favor of national sovereignty, had drawn earlier guffaws from the audience when boasting about his administration’s accomplishments. At the time, the response highlighted perceptions of U.S. isolationism, but in hindsight — particularly after the Ukraine war disrupted Russian gas flows — many argue it exposed the vulnerabilities Merz now describes as strategic errors.
Looking Ahead
Merz’s administration has signaled a pragmatic shift, stressing faster approvals for new power plants — potentially including gas-fired ones — to stabilize prices, bolster industry and avoid permanent federal budget subsidies for electricity.
The chancellor’s candid assessment has reignited debate over whether parts of the phaseout can or should be revisited, though full reversals face major technical and political obstacles. Critics of the original decision say it heightened crisis vulnerabilities, while supporters insist renewables offer the sustainable long-term path despite immediate challenges.
