Bagging excess profits from energy producers, a global price cap for Putin gas – the President of the European Commission wants to have the brazen winners of the crisis by the collar.

“We will intervene in the electricity market with an emergency instrument,” announced Ursula von der Leyen, who joined the TV talk from Brussels. “We want to skim off some of the profits that the companies never expected.”

The President of the European Commission wants to get all 27 member countries on board. Although this is a pretty hopeless undertaking, the Commission is already working on a legal basis. The energy ministers of the federal states are to discuss this at a meeting at the end of next week. According to von der Leyen, the “skimmed profits” should continue to be fair to consumers.

But the EU Commission goes one step further. A cap on Russian gas prices is also being sought there.

“I think it’s right to cap Russian gas prices across Europe and globally,” says Ursula von der Leyen. That should also apply to oil, according to the Commission President. “We say we won’t pay more than a certain amount for Russian oil.” It is evident that not all countries are participating. “Not everyone is on board. But those trying to undermine that price will need ships and insurance,” von der Leyen said.

The EU Commission President is also pleased that the gas storage facilities in the EU are now well filled. “It’s good that the gas storage tanks are full. We have to expect Putin to turn off the gas every day.” The top priority remains that Putin can no longer blackmail us with fossil fuels and “we can get through the winter”.

Climate activist Luisa Neubauer draws attention to the fact that every day with fossil fuels is a bad day for the climate. It’s still about nuclear power, gas, coal. That’s why every crisis will only be followed by another crisis, she says. There has still been no real rethinking in the direction of renewable energy.

The climate activist even certified the Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FPD) as a “refusal to work”. “The transport minister refuses to name climate targets. In any other profession, that would be a refusal to work,” criticizes Neubauer. “There is a boycott of climate action. It’s completely absurd.” That also calls into question the entire coalition, which supports Wissing’s inaction.

Above all, Karl-Josef Laumann (CDU) would like to fire those who “do not receive any transfer payments and are just making ends meet”. The NRW Minister of Labor and Social Affairs puts this group of people at 850,000 in NRW alone. “Too little has been done for them.” Money must now be raised for this.

Laumann explains it like this: “The situation is like this because we are at war in Europe. Putin’s plan must not work that our society splits because we have social unrest. Putin wants us to have problems in our own society.”

“In the short term, we have to increase the quantities in order to lower the price,” emphasizes the FDP parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, Christian Dürr. That means: continue with coal and nuclear power! “But these are short-term measures and are not a renaissance of nuclear power. We will also have to do that with coal.” You just have to get to the prices. “No company or private household can afford these high prices.”

Dürr also wants to get behind the wheel. “We have to start with the tax. We need inflation compensation. We have to go straight there. That goes down well with people.”

Finally, the nine-euro ticket also finds the support of the FDP politician. “The nine-euro ticket was very uncomplicated. We have to build on that.” It remains to be seen what the traffic light coalition will put on the table as a relief package by Sunday.