In the Lower Saxony election campaign, the Greens took a clear position on the state’s involvement in the Volkswagen Group. Politicians in Hanover are not using their influence on the supervisory board sufficiently to “align VW in good time with the climate policy requirements of the new world of mobility and international competition,” the green state association railed in its election program. There were also many critical voices from the party about business in China. With her entry into the state government, the green top candidate Julia Willie Hamburg now faces a reality test.
Barely a month after the election, the new cabinet meets on Tuesday for its inaugural meeting. Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) continues to govern in a new constellation. Instead of a grand coalition with the CDU, he now leads an alliance with the Greens. Hamburg, 36 years old, becomes deputy head of government and takes over the ministry of culture. On the VW supervisory board, she is to replace Bernd Althusmann, who was economics minister for five years but is relinquishing all positions after the defeat of his party, the CDU. According to informed circles, if Hamburg’s order is completed quickly enough by the responsible registry court, it should take part in the first supervisory board meeting on Friday.
Lower Saxony holds 20 percent of the ordinary shares in VW. Two representatives of the state government sit on the supervisory board, often deputies of the respective coalition partners, as was the case with Weil and Althusmann. The Greens have also participated in government in Hanover, but have so far kept their distance from the car company, probably also because they saw the danger of being crushed between party and company interests.
Risky item
In 2013, when Weil formed the first red-green coalition, the then Green Party leadership around Stefan Wenzel left the supervisory board mandates entirely to the SPD. A far-sighted decision, as it later turned out: when the diesel scandal broke out in autumn 2015, Weil and his party friend Olaf Lies, then Economics Minister and VW inspector, found themselves caught in a storm that kept them in suspense for months. The manipulated exhaust gas values highlighted control deficits in the group and caused the board of directors to explain.
Now the Greens really want to fill the VW post. Hamburg sees him as a “key function” in advancing issues such as clean mobility. However, the mandate is likely to bring them into conflict with the party line sooner or later, for example in China policy. The Green Federal Ministers Baerbock and Habeck are calling for a tougher approach here. Hamburg, on the other hand, as a member of the supervisory board, will henceforth be committed to the interests of the company, which cannot easily reduce its great dependence on the People’s Republic.
