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Angela Merkel rounds on German car chiefs in opening election rally
Angela Merkel spoke against German carmakers over the Dieselgate scandal on Saturday as she launched her bid to win a fourth term as chancellor.
In a televised speech to mark the official start of her election campaign, Mrs Merkel condemned executives over the diesel emissions rigging that has rocked the German car industry, and called for action to restore public confidence.
“Large parts of the automotive industry have lost trust on an unbelievable scale. There needs to be action,” she told an audience of party supporters.
“Where things are swept under the table, or where emissions tests are exploited to the point where they’re unrecognisable, that destroys trust.”
It was Mrs Merkel’s most outspoken intervention yet over the diesel emissions test rigging that has engulfed Volkswagen, Mercedes, Audi and Porsche.
It came as the chancellor launched her election campaign with a pledge to take the fight to her rivals.
“We have to persuade, we have to fight, we have to stand up for our beliefs,” she told supporters.
Six weeks ahead of German elections, Mrs Merkel’s Christian Democrat party (CDU) is so far ahead in the opinion polls that the campaign looks in danger of becoming a victory procession.
At one point she even joked: “I’m sorry, I forgot the election has not been decided yet”.
Her choice of venue for the start of the campaign, the city of Dortmund, appeared to be a shot across the bows of her closest rivals, the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) led by Martin Schulz, the former president of the European parliament.
The city lies in the SPD’s traditional heartlands, but the party is currently 17 points behind in the polls - a gap many pundits are beginning to say may be too big to close.
In her speech, Mrs Merkel pledged that the European Union would remain at the heart of her policies. “Strengthening Europe means strengthening Germany,” she said.
“The greatest security, the greatest peace project for us, is the European Union.”
She pointed to her economic record, and in particular to the German unemployment rate, which fell to just 3.8 per cent in June.
“Today, we have 44m people in work in Germany, which are really great figures,” she said.
Germany votes on September 24. The CDU is currently on around 40 per cent in the opinion polls, ahead of the SPD on around 23 per cent.
The far-Right Alternative for Germany party (AfD), the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), the Greens and the Left Party are all tied on around 8 per cent.