2024 Author: Eric Donovan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 21:13
Hildegard Müller is to become President of the Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). She would succeed Bernhard Mattes, who is stepping down from his post.
Müller should keep the industry together in the coming years and polish up the bad image again. After months of searching, the leading representatives of the corporations had agreed on the 52-year-old former CDU politician, it was said on Wednesday from industry and Berlin coalition circles.
spoods.de
The personnel was not officially confirmed, and Müller himself did not comment either. The final decision of the VDA executive committee was still pending, but according to reports it is only about details. The VDA is one of the most influential lobby associations in Germany, and the automotive industry is a key industry with more than 800,000 direct employees. However, it has been under heavy pressure for years because of the diesel scandal. The climate debate and the planned conversion of car traffic towards e-mobility also provide a lot of material for conflict.
Müller's name was mentioned again and again
Müller's name had been mentioned again and again in the past few weeks. She is new to the automotive industry, but there are certainly a few points of contact in her vita. Until October she was network manager of the energy company Innogy, one of the largest operators of charging stations for electric cars in Germany. Before that she was chairman of the executive board of the Federal Association of Energy and Water Management (BDEW) for almost eight years.
Müller is, and according to reports, very important to the auto bosses, not only as well networked in politics, but also as experienced in the world of associations. From 1998 to 2002 she was the only woman to run the Junge Union. From 2005 on she was Minister of State in the Federal Chancellery and as such was responsible for federal-state relations, among other things.
With its decision in favor of Müller, the industry also wanted to set an example in the current social discussion, it was said from industrial circles. The fact that a woman gets the job was probably just as important to the car bosses as the fact that Müller, at 52 years old, is a good ten years younger than her predecessor Mattes. Ex-SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel and the outgoing EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger, both of whom were traded as candidates, are also older. Above all, an appointment by Oettinger, so it can be heard, would have sent the wrong signal.
Matthes had surprisingly announced withdrawal
Former Ford manager Mattes surprisingly announced his withdrawal in September. He has only been VDA President since March 2018, his term of office actually ran until the end of 2020. Müller would only be the second woman at the top of the association. Erika Emmerich, until then President of the Federal Motor Transport Authority, took over the management in 1989. Since their departure in 1996, however, the office of president has only gone to men.
As Mattes' successor, Müller now has to prove that she can settle disputes and align the lobby association of the most important German industrial sector on common lines. The VDA is generally regarded as a difficult association to lead because it has to reconcile the various interests of manufacturers and suppliers, including many small ones.
Rifts between the corporations
In the dispute about the future direction of the industry, however, the rifts sometimes run right through the ranks of the large corporations. In the spring things were boiling between Volkswagen on the one hand and Daimler and BMW on the other. VW boss Herbert Diess wanted the association and the Wolfsburg-based company to focus more on promoting pure electric drives. Daimler and BMW reacted coldly because, with their often heavy cars, they also rely more on mixed plug-in hybrids. Mattes is said to have not cut a good figure for everyone, so it was heard behind the scenes.
The exhibition organized by the association, the International Motor Show, was also recently under a bad star. Due to the dwindling number of visitors and doubts about the concept, the association has initiated a new direction. Frankfurt is no longer set to host either. It is still open where the next IAA Cars will take place in 2021. (dpa)
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