Impact of the Russian-Ukrainian Crisis on the Approaches of German Parties towards Energy Transition

Abstract

Since the 1990s, Germany has been following the concept of the energy transition. A long political debate on the necessity of its implementation ended after the Fukushima Daiichi accident in 2011, when a consensus emerged among the leading German parties on the main problems of the energy transition. However, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict of 2022 has actualized the use of fossil fuels, NPPs and has led to a change in the established positions of the German parties on achieving carbon neutrality. The authors of the article used discourse-analytical approach to study the issue and examined the changes in Germany's energy policy in the context of the crisis through the perspective of the transformation of the discourse of German parties. The aim of the study was to identify discursive shifts as well as dominant narratives in the rhetoric of German parties on the energy transition problem after the February 2022 events. It was assumed that the energy transition discourse would remain dominant in the rhetoric of the German parties in light of the onset of the crisis. As an alternative hypothesis, it was assumed that a number of German parties would shift towards the energy mix discourse, making it dominant and most influential, leading to a revision of the German energy policy. The content analysis of the FRG parties' tweets confirmed the alternative hypothesis. The authors conclude that after the beginning of the energy crisis, under the influence of public sentiment, the CDU/CSU, FDP and Left shifted towards the energy mix discourse, making it dominant and more influential than the energy transition discourse. This contributed to the adjustment of the German government's policy in the energy sector.