A photo taken early on October 25, 2025, shows the decommissioned nuclear power plant Gundremmingen in Gundremmingen, southern Germany, prior to the controlled demolition of the plant’s cooling towers. The demolition of the cooling towers was part of the scheduled dismantling of the nuclear power plant as a result of the nuclear phase-out. It was one of the largest nuclear sites in Germany.
KARL-JOSEF HILDENBRAND / AFP
The party’s parliamentary group wants a return to reliable energy sources.
German right-wing populist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) wants to see the Nord Stream gas pipeline back online and also proposes reactivating nuclear power.
That is the content of a position paper presented by the party’s parliamentary group, according to Welt. The proposal, seen by AFP, states:
We will further diversify the supply of gas and oil in Germany’s interest, avoid new import dependencies, and enable the commissioning of existing supply routes such as the Nord Stream pipeline.
The Nord Stream explosions on September 26th, 2022, ruptured three of the four pipelines built to carry Russian natural gas to Germany. The sabotage, described by both Moscow and the West as a deliberate act, cut off a critical supply route as Europe was already facing an energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The blasts damaged the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which Moscow had stopped supplying just weeks earlier, and the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, which had never entered service after Berlin suspended its certification on the eve of the war.
The pipelines are not currently capable of transporting gas. However, Russia’s Gazprom last year obtained permission to do preservation work on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to reduce environmental and safety risks. There are no plans for putting the pipelines back online, primarily because of the EU’s sanction on Russia over the Ukraine war and the bloc’s efforts to reduce dependency on Russia.
The AfD also proposes reactivating nuclear power after Germany decommissioned its last nuclear power plant in 2023—a decision EU Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen, who supported the decision at the time, now says was a “strategic mistake.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) has criticized the country’s decision to exit nuclear energy, saying it has deprived Germany of cheap and reliable electricity. Rather than reopening conventional nuclear power plants, he has proposed investing in new technologies, including small modular reactors and nuclear fusion.
AfD’s parliamentary group also rejects phasing out fossil fuels and wants to continue using coal and gas. In addition, the party wants to end subsidies for wind and solar and repeal a number of ‘green transition’ laws.
