Angela Merkel drags in carmakers as ‘campaign’ enters home stretch

Bloomberg

Chancellor Angela Merkel hit the campaign trail with a swipe at German auto executives for a diesel cheating scandal, sounding a pro-labour message she’ll use to counter her Social Democratic Party challenger leading up to the country’s Sept. 24 election.
As polls give Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union-led bloc a wide lead over the SPD with six weeks of campaigning to go, the chancellor said she’ll push for new technologies while protecting working people living in “a time of uncertainty.” She singled out carmakers for undermining Germany’s economic model and being slow to embrace innovation.
“The way things were swept under the carpet or loopholes in emission tests were massively exploited—that destroys trust,” Merkel told an audience of labour activists in Dortmund. “There’s a lot that still needs to be cleared up. When I say industry, I’m thinking first of all of the corporate leadership.”
By accusing one of Germany’s most powerful industries of jeopardising jobs, Merkel’s criticism fits with her strategy occupying the middle ground between right and left. It’s helped her win re-election twice during 12 years in office, a longevity that makes her the longest-serving western leader and a source of stability at a time of geostrategic turmoil.
Merkel, 63, began her final campaign stretch focussed close to home, unveiling a pitch for a mix of economic stability and progress that’s meant to contrast with SPD challenger Martin Schulz’s emphasis on income equality and a fair society.
Germany’s nationwide vote caps an electoral calendar in Europe that has seen a surge in support for anti-immigration, EU-skeptic populists in the Netherlands and France, only for them to be defeated as the centre held.
Kicking off her campaign in an SPD stronghold in Ruhr Valley, she praised Germany’s minimum wage, a Social Democrat-driven project passed by her coalition in 2014, and pledged action to protect temporary workers from exploitation.
Michaela Uhlig, a local CDU politician in Dortmund, said she appreciated the chancellor’s ‘strong focus on social policy’. “Mrs. Merkel also made it clear that the auto-industry managers are responsible for the diesel scandal, not the employees,” Uhlig said.