Or did the manager, who is used to success and who will also be in charge of the Volkswagen Group from September, just show off a bit at a works meeting at the end of June when he reported on the decision-making processes for the future of the combustion engine? One thing is clear: Blume is no longer happy about his statements.
After some excitement, the Porsche boss apologized for this over the weekend. The 54-year-old told “Bild am Sonntag” that he had chosen the “wrong words” at an internal company event in relation to contacts on the subject of synthetic fuels. “It gave the wrong impression. I’m sorry.” The FDP had previously clearly rejected the representation of a close exchange between Blume and party leader Lindner.
It is not unusual for managers and politicians to talk to each other. The fact that a manager reports about it internally afterwards and maybe even brags a bit about his influence, isn’t either. The fact that a company boss publicly apologizes weeks later for his choice of words, on the other hand, is a rarity. Blume’s apology is also likely to have something to do with the extent to which Finance Minister Lindner – himself a Porsche driver – was criticized for this.
The trigger was a report by the ZDF satirical magazine “Die Anstalt” on Tuesday, in which Blume’s statements at a works meeting on June 29 were reproduced. Accordingly, the boss is said to have said in front of employees that Porsche had “a very large part” in the fact that the further use of synthetically produced e-fuels for combustion engines “was included in the coalition agreement”.
“We were the main drivers there, with very close contact to the coalition parties. Christian Lindner has kept me up to date almost every hour in the last few days,” Blume was quoted as saying by ZDF.
At the end of June, there was a dispute within the traffic light coalition about a ban on new registrations of combustion cars from 2035 at EU level. Lindner rejected the ban. In the coalition negotiations in autumn 2021, the traffic light had agreed to ban new registrations for combustion engines from 2035 – but there should be an exception for cars that can only be operated with e-fuels.
An FDP spokesman said on Saturday that Lindner’s position on e-fuels has been “known for years” and dates back to the FDP’s time in opposition. “In October 2021 there was only a short phone call between Mr. Blume and Mr. Lindner on questions about the use of e-fuels”. The other negotiators of the coalition partners had also held such talks, which is also correct in view of the importance of the German automotive industry.
With regard to Lindner’s actions at the end of June, the FDP stated that before this decision there had been “no contact whatsoever with Mr. Blume and also afterwards no attempt to influence Mr. Lindner’s long-standing position”.
The declarations followed turbulent days. After the ZDF program had been broadcast, there were thousands of posts on Twitter with the hashtag “Lindnertritt” and some with “PorscheGate” over the course of the week. After the broadcast, ZDF announced that there was verified evidence for Blume’s statements. These were not available to dpa.
On Friday, a Porsche spokesman said on request that the exchange in question “didn’t exist” – just before the news broke in the evening that Blume was to replace Herbert Diess as CEO of the Volkswagen Group on September 1st.
On Saturday, Porsche was contrite. “During an internal event in June, exaggerated formulations were made, and we apologize for that,” said a spokesman. “The choice of words does not correspond to the facts. The exchange did not take place and there was no influence.” The spokesman did not provide any information on Blume’s exact choice of words. Finally: Blume’s apology personally.
In view of the reports, the left warned of a threat to democracy. “It cannot be that the Porsche boss was apparently better informed about the status of the coalition negotiations than the rest of the population. That would be a further erosion of democracy,” said parliamentary group leader Jan Korte of the “Welt am Sonntag”. Christina Deckwirth from Lobby Control said: “It is highly problematic if there are special accesses for large, financially strong corporations during coalition negotiations.”
E-fuels are fuels for petrol or diesel engines that are produced using a difficult chemical process. Critics argue against the synthetic fuels that the production requires a lot of energy and is therefore very expensive and inefficient. Environmentalists therefore do not see e-fuels as a sensible alternative to electromobility.
In autumn 2021, the SPD, Greens and FDP stated in their coalition agreement that the government wanted to support e-fuels. Porsche has been involved in the development of e-fuels for a long time – in autumn, for example, the go-ahead was given for a pilot plant for the production of fuels in Chile.
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