SPD General Secretary Tim Klüssendorf has sharply criticized Economy Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) in response to the new all-time high in fuel prices. Klüssendorf told the news portal T-Online that the situation is “finally too much.” He stated that millions of people in the country continue to struggle with extremely inflated fuel costs, noting that Reiche is watching as oil conglomerates generate record profits at the expense of citizens. He insists that rapid measures are needed to tackle what he calls “price gouging.”
Klüssendorf specifically demands three immediate actions, which the SPD has campaigned for over several months and claims would instantly lower prices. First, he calls for a fuel price cap, similar to those introduced in Belgium and Luxembourg, arguing that this would cost taxpayers “not a single cent” while immediately driving down prices. Second, he demands a “windfall tax” (Übergewinnsteuer) on the crisis profits. This measure is intended to reclaim the “exceedingly high profits” of the oil companies on behalf of the state and redistribute them back to the public. Third, Klüssendorf calls for a “functional market economy,” asserting that the market failure cannot be ignored any longer. Instead, the system must “ensure greater price transparency and finally limit the opaque market power of a small handful of oil corporations.”
Klüssendorf also criticized the AfD in this context, suggesting the far-right party has offered “no constructive feedback” on the issue. He noted that when other EU countries have successfully lowered prices, the AfD has dismissed these measures in Germany as an “impermissible interference in the market.”
