DID MERKEL COVER UP VW SCANDAL?
As car maker’s boss quits, German leader accused of accepting trickery ‘with a wink’
ANGELA Merkel became embroiled in the Volkswagen scandal yesterday as opposition politicians in Germany said her government knew in advance about the firm fiddling its emissions results.
The German Green Party said ministers knew in summer about Volkswagen rigging emissions tests but that ‘tricks and deceits’ were ‘accepted with a wink’.
The scandal claimed its first major scalp yesterday as the car-maker’s chief executive Professor Martin Winterkorn resigned to allow a ‘fresh start’ – but denied any ‘wrongdoing’ or culpability.
Shares in VW rose 7.3 per cent on the news but, since the scandal broke at the start of the week, the firm has lost around one third of its value, or £20billion. Germany’s Greens claim Chancellor Mrs Merkel’s Conservative-led government admitted knowing about Volkswagen’s emissions test cheating software in an answer to a parliamentary question in July.
Oliver Krischer, the party’s deputy leader, told Germany’s N24 television channel: ‘The government told us in July that it knew about this software, which has been used in the USA, and it’s clear they knew the software was widely in use.’
He added: ‘ The government worked with the auto industry not to see that emissions levels were reduced, but so that the measuring system was set up to allow the cars to meet the necessary standards on paper.’
Mr Krischer’s claim centres on a written answer given by the German transport ministry on July 28 to a question from the Greens about so-called ‘defeat devices’. This is the industry name for the software that allowed Volkswagen to cheat emissions tests in the US. The ministry wrote that it shared the view of the European Commission ‘that there is no extensively proven means of preventing defeat devices’.
But it said the ministry supported further development of EU regulations ‘with the aim of reducing the real emissions from motor vehicles’.
A forum of German environmental businesses backed the allegation that the Merkel government knew what was going on.
Juergen Resch, head of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (German Environment Aid), said: ‘The federal ministry of transport has not once checked the information provided by the manufacturer in recent years.’
But on Tuesday, transport minister Alexander Dobrindt denied that the government had failed to properly monitor the motor industry for irregularities.
He said: ‘Again and again we conduct testing. If there are irregularities, we discuss them immediately with the auto manufacturer according to the rules.’
Mr Dobrindt has ordered an immediate inquiry into the VW scandal. He added: ‘Our inquiry will investigate whether the vehicles in question were built and tested within the existing German and European legislation.’
The Green Party stood by its claims. Mr Krischer said: ‘It is surprising to see how Mr Dobrindt acts shocked at the news in recent days, when in July he was very well informed about the situation.
‘The Volkswagen emissions scandal is the result of a policy in which environmental and consumer protection are no longer important, and tricks and deceits are accepted with a wink.’
Professor Winterkorn announced
‘Knew about this software’
he was stepping down but said he was not aware of ‘any wrongdoing on my part’.
His statement read: ‘I am shocked by the events of the past few days. Above all, I am stunned that misconduct on such a scale was possible in the Volkswagen Group.
‘As CEO I accept responsibility for the irregularities that have been found in diesel engines and have therefore requested the supervisory board to agree on terminating my function as CEO … I am doing this in the interests of the company even though I am not aware of any wrongdoing on my part.’
Professor Winterkorn added that VW needed a ‘fresh start’ and his resignation was ‘clearing the way’ for that to happen. He said he was ‘convinced’ the company would ‘overcome this grave crisis’.
The Environmental Protection Agency in the US said cars had been fitted with sophisticated software to switch engines to a cleaner mode when they are undergoing official emissions testing.
Once on the road, the cars produced nitrogen oxide pollutants at up to 40 times the legal standard.