Speaking to parliament, Rainer Bruederle said the report in the newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung was based on an incorrect interpretation of comments he made at the closed meeting hosted by the industry association BDI.
“They cited minutes that the BDI later explained were a false representation of my explanations,” said the politician from the Free Democrats, junior partner in the ruling coalition.
The newspaper had said Bruederle surprised the 40 or so top managers at the meeting, held on Monday last week as Chancellor Angela Merkel announced a moratorium on nuclear power in light of Japan’s atomic crisis.
“The minister... illustrated that with the upcoming state election, pressure was weighing on politics and decisions would not always be rational,” the paper quoted the minutes as saying in its Thursday edition.
It said Bruederle defended atomic power at the meeting, whose participants included power company CEOs Juergen Grossmann from RWE and Johannes Teyssen of E.ON, saying there was no way to avoid its use especially for energy-intensive industries.
Merkel’s party faces tough elections this weekend in states where anti-nuclear sentiment is strong.
Following the nuclear crisis in Japan, the moratorium Merkel declared on March 14 led to the closing of seven of the country’s 17 nuclear plants for at least three months.
