German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Monday that Germany could not afford permanent subsidies for industrial power.

Speaking at an economic conference in Berlin, Scholz said that “industry cannot become a permanent subsidy recipient of the Federal Republic of Germany – that cannot work in any country and it would not work for us either.”

“We have to make sure that we have cheap production capacities so that we have cheap electricity prices,” he added.

A plan by German economy minister Robert Habeck to introduce a subsidized price of 6 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) until 2030 has come under fire from finance minister Christian Lindner, who says the country’s budget does not allow for it.