In view of the high gasoline prices, the government is panicking and accusing the companies of rip-offs. But drivers are paying for the fact that electric cars are coming onto the market too slowly.
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Petrol and diesel have long since broken the two euro mark. The trend is rising sharply. This hits commuters particularly hard and is particularly inconvenient for the government parties in a month when state elections are coming up in two regional states – Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. The temptation is great to respond with populist measures: punishing the oil companies, which are already raising prices even though they bought the oil at the old prices; or a fuel discount, as introduced by the traffic light government after the Russian attack on Ukraine.