Aiwanger gives the carer – a lizard as a symbol

The Minister of Economics is trying in the state parliament to refute the criticism of his work – and is not too surprising. For example when it comes to nuclear power plants.

Munich – It is an explosive appointment. Hubert Aiwanger, the Minister of Economic Affairs, who is currently the subject of very loud disagreements, has come to the state parliament's technical committee to report. But the listeners in the Maximilianeum experience two surprises: after many excited statements over the past few days, the debate is remarkably sober and serious. And the focus is not on the minister, but on a small animal that actually has surprisingly little to do with economics: the sand lizard.

Because over the course of the two-hour debate, this lizard becomes a symbol of great bureaucracy and even greater hurdles for investments in infrastructure and companies. Aiwanger reports on construction plans for the parking lot of a tourism company. But the project was delayed year after year because new mapping was always required. Only when things were “escalated up to ministerial level” did things suddenly move faster. The minister sees a flaw in the system. Because: “I can’t take care of every lizard mapping.” Aiwanger, the caretaker.

Aiwanger surprises with nuclear power plant statements: “Repository issue not resolved”

The lizard stands for everything that is currently hindering companies – and is brought up again and again throughout the meeting. The other core problems of the economy: taxes that are too high, too much bureaucracy, energy that is too expensive. These are Aiwanger's favorite topics, but his tone in the committee is completely different than at demos or in beer tents.

The coalition partner CSU also recently accused him of neglecting the core task. In the committee, the 53-year-old is obviously trying to straighten out this picture. He begins his report demonstratively by saying that Munich has overtaken Berlin as the capital of start-ups. Actually not his favorite topic.

Occasionally the minister even surprises, for example when he suddenly sees positive things about the heat planning for all municipalities decided by the traffic light coalition. This has “big economic effects if we tackle it correctly”. The sentences about nuclear power are also full of unusual nuances. He warns not to “start blustering straight away” against the Czech government’s plans in Temelin. But nuclear power plants also have their downsides. “Chernobyl and Fukushima have not been forgotten and the final storage issue has not yet been resolved either.”

Aiwanger does not satisfy the opposition: “Talked about lizards longer than about wind power”

The reactions afterwards are to be expected. The opposition is not satisfied. “Minister Aiwanger talked about lizards for longer than he did about a concrete concept for expanding wind power or speeding up procedures,” says SPD leader Florian von Brunn. But at least the coalition partner is satisfied with the performance. “He explained well what he planned conceptually. The economy today faces different conditions than before. Politics needs to provide more support – also in Bavaria,” says Kerstin Schreyer (CSU).