Caught in the act, hung in the act: The announced wave of layoffs at VW, the unilateral termination of the employment guarantee and the threatened closure of a first plant in Germany can be written into the red debt book of the federal and state governments.
And not just because their disastrous economic policies in Germany have now severely affected industry and all those to whom they provide work and a livelihood. But because VW has in fact been a state-owned company since it was founded in 1937.
In the video: Trial of the diesel scandal – Winterkorn rejects allegations
Land can never be outvoted in any decisions affecting VW
Generations of managers, works council members and workers have come and gone through the gates of Wolfsburg and elsewhere, but the state, more precisely the state of Lower Saxony, has remained the most important shareholder in the company.
The country owns golden shares, an anachronism from times long past: a specially created VW law guarantees, against every rule in the EU, that the country can never be outvoted in any decisions affecting VW, no matter how large its share is.
SPD governs VW
And so it happens that the SPD not only governs the country, but also, conveniently, the largest company in the country, VW. No matter what is being thought, planned or decided at VW, Olaf Scholz is always at the table, or rather he is represented by his party colleague, the Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, Stephan Weil.
Diesel scandal, constant managerial changes, software problems, a botched electric car strategy – the country was always on board when things didn’t go as planned at VW. And it is also involved now when it comes to fewer VW employees and fewer VW plants in Germany.
Knowing, deciding, being caught, hanging – that is the whole misery that Volkswagen and the top representatives of this republic have in common. It is no use to Scholz now to point the finger at the managers who are announcing layoffs. He is one of them himself.
The original of this article “VW earthquake! The largest state-owned company falls on Scholz’s traffic light” comes from Business Punk.
