Rub of the Green

A year ago, Robert Habeck was one of Germany's best-liked politicians. Then came the backlash. Can he win the argument all over again?

- Philip Oltermann

EARLIER THIS YEAR, when I visited him in his office in Berlin, the most powerful green politician in the world was at a low point. It was the last day of the parliamentary term and Robert Habeck, Germany's vice-chancellor, was running half an hour late. When he finally arrived, he pretend-collapsed as he entered the room, dragging his satchel behind him like a frustrated teenager. When I asked how his day had been, he exhaled theatrically and quoted the opening line of the Boomtown Rats song I Don't Like Mondays: "The silicon chip inside her head gets switched to overload."

Habeck leads Germany's federal ministry for economic affairs and climate action, and that afternoon one of his core pieces of legislation had been due to be passed by parliament. It would have obliged public authorities, datacentres and businesses to periodically audit their energy use and reduce heat waste. But the opposition scuppered the vote, and Habeck was heading into the summer recess empty-handed.

Habeck wants the world's fourth-largest economy to be a global leader in renewable energy, but virtually every new climate measure he has launched this year has become bogged down. The most vital was a law mandating that from 2024 all newly installed heating systems must use a minimum of 65% renewable energy. About half of Germany's 41m households are heated using natural gas, and Habeck's reform promised to cut emissions by 40m-50m tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2030, significantly more than under old legislation. But when the law was leaked before being published, it was bitterly attacked by the rightwing tabloid Bild and Habeck's partners in Germany's ruling coalition government. Then, at the final hurdle, publication was postponed by the constitutional court just 48 hours before it was due to be voted through.