2024-09-04 00:44:31
VW wants to tighten its austerity plans and has thus angered employee representatives. Now Habeck and Merz are speaking out.
Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck is getting involved in the crisis at Volkswagen. The Green politician said in Berlin that decisions must be made in close coordination with the social partners and that the goal of Germany remaining a strong automotive location must be kept in mind. “All those involved must live up to their responsibility for the employees at the locations.”
Europe’s largest carmaker had announced that, as part of a cost-cutting program at its core brand VW, plant closures and redundancies were no longer ruled out. The company announced that the agreement on job security concluded with the works council would be terminated. This excluded redundancies until 2029. Employee representatives and the union were appalled. Read more about this here.
Habeck called the automotive industry a cornerstone of Germany as an industrial location. “It should stay that way.” The large automobile manufacturers and their suppliers are good employers for tens of thousands of employees, “prosperity engines” in regions across the country and innovation drivers across industry boundaries. “This is even more true for VW as the second largest automobile manufacturer and the company bears a great deal of responsibility here.”
The transformation efforts for the automotive industry are currently enormous, said Habeck, with a view to the shift towards e-mobility. German car manufacturers must keep up with this competition. Long-term planning security is also a decisive location factor. The EU requirement that only CO2-neutral vehicles may be newly registered from 2035 onwards creates this security.
This de facto ban on new cars with combustion engines is highly controversial. After the government stopped subsidizing the purchase of electric cars, new registrations in Germany collapsed.
The federal government now wants to boost demand for electric cars as company cars. Stronger tax incentives are planned. A corresponding draft law as part of the “growth initiative” is to be passed by the cabinet on Wednesday, according to sources in the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Habeck had already spoken of a boost to increase demand for e-mobility again.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz warns that the federal government’s economic policy is putting many industrial companies at risk. “Germany is in recession. The federal government is primarily responsible for this, not just the global economy,” said Merz after a visit to the Georgsmarienhütte steelworks near Osnabrück. The framework conditions of the traffic light coalition are threatening the existence of many companies.
Merz said that the continued existence of the steelworks in Georgsmarienhütte, for example, was in danger “if a solution is not soon found with electricity prices that enable competitive steel production at this location.” The company, which melts down scrap, needs as much electricity for a single electric furnace as the entire city of Osnabrück.
With regard to Volkswagen’s tightened austerity plans, Merz also criticized the fact that the framework conditions for such large industrial companies in Germany are not good enough. “The locations are no longer competitive,” said the Union parliamentary group leader.
Merz’s comments drew criticism from FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr. Merz should “speak to Ms von der Leyen in Brussels instead of looking for the blame in others,” Dürr told “Wirtschaftswoche.” A “radical change of course” is needed there.