Mercedes-Benz’s lobbying department does not have a good reputation. Not because she represents the car manufacturer with all the tricks and tricks on the political stage. On the contrary: Mercedes appears so toothless in Berlin and Brussels that many people wonder why CEO Ola Källenius (54) has “such a pickle group”.
A report from manager magazine from May
According to insiders, the strange goings-on in the unit around Eckart von Klaeden (57) kept bothering the company internally. Von Klaeden himself is considered controversial, and another high-ranking lobbyist, Holger Krahmer (53), is now leaving the Swabians. manager magazin learned this from corporate circles. A Mercedes spokeswoman said Krahmer would be leaving the company at his own request at the end of the year. It is still unclear who will succeed him.
Krahmer joined Mercedes in 2019 and has since been the carmaker’s top emissary to the EU in Brussels. The 53-year-old had lobbying experience from a good three and a half years at Opel. Krahmer was previously active as a politician himself. He sat in the European Parliament for the FDP for ten years.
In Brussels, Krahmer had a reputation as a climate skeptic. In 2010 he published an FDP brochure in the European Parliament entitled “Inconvenient truths about climate policy and its scientific basis”. He wrote about the failed climate conference in Copenhagen that “the end of climate hysteria has heralded.” Two years later he co-organized a conference of climate skeptics in Dresden with the call “Can we still be saved?”
Such an attitude does not fit with the Mercedes agenda. CEO Källenius has clearly aligned the car manufacturer with electromobility. In 2021 he signed a declaration calling for an end to combustion engines by 2040. Mercedes itself wants to be ready by 2030. The Swabians are also committed to the Paris Climate Agreement. Perhaps the top EU representative will also take this line in the future.