‘Bogeyman’ car industry fires up German election

With six weeks to go until a general election, Chancellor Angela Merkel and her main rival are taking aim at Germany’s scandal-hit car bosses, in a race to reassure voters they won’t have to pay for the sector’s mistakes. But observers say Merkel and her Social Democratic challenger Martin Schulz will have to tread a fine line between defending diesel owners and bashing an industry that employs 800,000 people and is the backbone of the German economy.

“The ‘big bad industry that has to change’ will be a constant refrain throughout the campaign,” said Nils Diederich, professor of political science at Berlin’s Free University.

Merkel, criticised for staying silent in July when the dieselgate scandal widened on allegations of decades-long collusion between automakers, used her first campaign event to slam car executives.

Her main rival, Schulz, used his own media blitz on Sunday to call out the “irresponsible” managers who had failed to make the necessary investments in the cleaner cars of the future.

He called for an EU-wide quota to push electric cars, a proposal dismissed by Merkel as too complicated to implement.

Commentators said the attacks on the car industry carried a whiff of hypocrisy given both parties’ cosy links with Germany’s auto giants.

The industry’s fall from grace began in 2015 when Volkswagen admitted to installing software in 11 million diesel engines to cheat emissions tests, and suspicions later spread to other manufacturers.

The scandal deepened on reports last month that Daimler, BMW, Volkswagen and its Audi and Porsche subsidiaries had colluded on technical specifications, including emissions technology, prompting anti-trust probes at home and in Brussels. The damage done to the ‘made in Germany’ brand, along with concerns over pollution and plans by some cities to ban dirty diesels, have fuelled public anger.

An early August poll for broadcaster ARD found 57 per cent of respondents said they had lost faith in the car industry. Two thirds also said they believed politicians were too close to the sector.

Merkel was dubbed the “car chancellor” in 2013 after she went to bat for the sector and argued against an EU cap on emissions.

Shortly after, German media reported that Merkel’s conservative CDU party had received nearly 700,000 euros ($825,000) in donations from the Quandt family, the largest shareholder in luxury carmaker BMW.

Schulz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has also faced accusations of doing the sector’s bidding.