On Monday morning, the MP from the Pirate Party joined RTL Radio to discuss the unfolding energy crisis and how he thinks the government should tackle the situation.
"It is not enough to think about saving energy, we actually have to do it", said Clement at the beginning of the interview. He thus criticised the government's proposed measures for not being decisive or concrete enough.
MP Clement continued by noting that members of the administration seem to be refusing to work and that Minister for Energy Claude Turmes avoids taking tough decisions. He believes that measures should be mandated rather than voluntary and underlined that the government needs to step up in times of crisis.
Even if energy-saving measures were mandatory, it would still not be enough to get the country out of the situation, explained the politician. Clement therefore expressed his belief that Luxembourg needs its own energy plant. Furthermore, there is a lot of room for improvement in the area of photovoltaic installations, which applies to the government in particular. So far, only 4% of government buildings are equipped with solar panels, highlighted Clement.
In light of the upcoming tripartite meeting on Sunday, the Pirate Party advocates for the introduction of an energy subsidy for this winter, which should be capped at four times the minimum wage. In other words, people should get €150 per month until the end of the winter to compensate for running costs. The MP also criticised that the tripartite meeting is to be held behind closed doors.
The last point that MP Clement addressed was the fuel discount, an "absurd" measure that only helped very few residents. It is unconscionable that oil companies make billions of profits while people only benefit from 7.5 cents per litre. In the end, people paid for the measure with their own tax money, said Clement. He concluded by noting that France had found ways to make oil companies help compensate the support measures in our neighbouring country.
