At the VolkswagenGroup draws a car and for the state of Lower Saxony China-critic to the board of directors. At its meeting on Tuesday, the state government of Lower Saxony decided to delegate Julia Willie Hamburg (36, Greens), the new Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Education for Lower Saxony, to the Supervisory Board of Volkswagen AG.
She replaces Bernd Althusmann (55, CDU), former economics minister of the state, whose party was thrown out of the government by the state elections. Instead of in a grand coalition, the SPD now governs in an alliance with the Greens.
Willie Hamburg’s new mandate harbors potential for conflict. Because the Green politician drives according to media reports
no car herself, is a self-confessed cyclist and is seen as an opponent of the Autobahn.
Willie Hamburg for closing the Xinjiang plant
As for Volkswagen, Willie Hamburg was critical of the automaker’s China strategy when she was leader of the opposition. She sharply criticized Volkswagen’s involvement in the Chinese region of Xinjiang, where the Chinese leadership is systematically suppressing and re-educating the Muslim Uyghur minority. The Wolfsburg carmaker has a plant in the region. The work apparently serves “the Chinese leadership to downplay the violence against the Uyghurs,” Willie Hamburg explained in the Lower Saxony state parliament in the middle of the year. “A German company shouldn’t encourage it.” VW has repeatedly defended its presence there. China is the carmaker’s most important sales market.
The state of Lower Saxony holds a 20 percent stake in Volkswagen AG, both directly and indirectly via Hannoversche Beteiligungsgesellschaft Niedersachsen mbH. In addition to Willie Hamburg, the re-elected Prime Minister Stephan Weil (63, SPD) is still on the group’s control committee. Up until now, the country’s acting economics minister had usually occupied the second seat on the supervisory board. The new Economics Minister is Olaf Lies (55). According to the so-called VW law, the state can veto questions of strategic importance.