When Germany began Energiewende, it seemed like a harmless indulgence to voters who wanted renewables, even if it made energy more expensive.  But Germany could not add renewables fast enough to replace nuclear and fossil fuel at the same time, and the fossil fuel industry had more public support (in spite of the claimed public concern about air pollution and CO2 emission).  The result was a predictable failure to meaningfully reduce fossil fuel dependence, in general.

But more specifically, they became more dependent on energy imports from Russian.  No doubt this dependence helped to embolden Putin to attack Ukraine.  So it is no longer just German consumers who pay the price for their misguided energy policy.  Ukraine now pays as well.

What the minister actually said
Habeck said that letting coal plants run longer “means a longer dependence on hard coal from Russia”, while buying coal elsewhere would create a dependency on other countries. Regarding nuclear, the Green Party minister - whose party is in staunch opposition to nuclear energy - said that he wouldn’t “ideologically reject” letting existing plants run longer but that his ministry’s initial examination had shown that “for the winter of 2022/23 nuclear power would not help us”. Preparations for the upcoming shutdowns are so far advanced, he said, that the nuclear power plants can only continue to operate "under the highest safety concerns and possibly with fuel supplies that have not yet been secured".