Schleswig-Holstein Finance Minister Monika Heinold (Greens) demands that the imposed billions in fines against the Volkswagen Group benefit all federal states. “Decency would dictate that the money be made available nationwide to all those affected,” she told the “Lübeck News”. Otherwise, the whole thing is a piece of the madhouse and turn the federalism on its head.
Just last week, the Volkswagen Group had paid a billion euros to the state of Lower Saxony. Previously, the prosecutor Brunswick had imposed the fine. Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister Stephan Weil (SPD) confirmed on Wednesday that the money was received on Monday at the Lower Saxony state treasury.
Heinold does not understand VW
Lower Saxony did not even know where to go with the billion, Finance Minister Heinold asserted, while the municipalities still “nationwide laboriously collecting the money for the implementation of clean air plans”. She has no understanding, if VW could make the fine for tax.
The state of Lower Saxony is one of the largest shareholders in VW and holds 20 percent of the voting rights in the Group. Weil and his minister of economics Bernd Althusmann (CDU) sit as representatives of the country in the VW supervisory board.
Critics accuse the country to have failed in the supervision of the car manufacturer – and now also to inject a billion euros.
Because stressed that the fine would not be included in the national financial equalization. “We have a tax audit that lasts – and therefore nobody should commit to a number as a precautionary measure.”