Already the first working day as president of the respectable association of the automobile industry (VDA) Bernhard Mattes (62) fell into a fiasco. To this day, one of the greats in the industry remembers how Mattes went down in Maybrit Illner’s (54) talk show on ZDF. “First he lost the speech duel with environmental aid chief Jürgen Resch, and at some point he almost fell silent.” It would have been better, Mattes had first made informed, so the man on.
Now Mattes has been leading the association for a good year and his doubts have grown. Many in the industry consider him a miscast: Mattes have too little influence in Berlin, is not eloquent enough for chancellery and media, bring automakers and suppliers too rarely on a common line. Still not looking for a successor, says a top man of one of the big companies. “But there are considerations about whether you need someone else – and who that could be.” He personally was not offered such criticism, said