German automobile industry under fire

HYPOCRISY: MERKEL AND RIVAL TAKE POT SHOTS

Chancellor aims at executives as she kicks off her first election campaign.

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 a crucial 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.

“But we will see that all parties will approach the topic very cautiously,” he told AFP.

“Not even the Greens are calling for diesels to be taken off the road right away.”

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

“Large parts of the automobile industry have gambled away incredible trust,” she said on Saturday. Her main rival, Schulz, used his own media blitz on Sunday to call out the “irresponsible” managers who had failed to invest in the cleaner cars of the future.

“Diesel drivers in Germany should not have to foot the bill for their irresponsibility,” the former European Parliament president said. 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’ notoriously cosy links with Germany’s auto giants over the years.

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 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.

Not even the Greens are calling for diesels to be taken off the road right away. Nils Diederich Political science professor