Volkswagen boss Herbert Diess, in front of 3400 top managers, he accused the members of the executive committee that they had pierced the company’s internal media. “These are crimes that happen in the presidency and can obviously be assigned there,” said Diess.
The conference with the executives took place last Thursday – a few days after a meeting of the supervisory board at which Diess had to explain himself due to operational shortcomings. Previously, there were media reports about problems with the important Golf 8 and ID.3 models. This was very annoying, it said.
The accusation had serious consequences for Diess. The members of the presidium were very angry, it was said from their environment. They were informed about the allegations of Diess on Thursday. In addition to the chairman Hans Dieter Pötsch, the committee also includes Wolfgang Porsche, Stephan Weil, Jörg Hofmann, Bernd Osterloh and Peter Mosch.
In one fell swoop, Diess brought the key players from the group of shareholders and the works council against each other. Porsche is the representative of the largest shareholder, the Porsche / Piëch family, and Weil (SPD), as Prime Minister of Lower Saxony, represents the interests of the state, the second largest shareholder.
The Supervisory Board discussed the future of Diess in a hastily convened meeting on Thursday. Some supervisors would have preferred the manager to be kicked out. However, given that the committee was convened at such short notice, there were formal concerns.
The supervisory boards therefore met for another extraordinary meeting on Monday. Ultimately, then, the panel ruled that Diess should be replaced.
Ralf Brandstätter, who is already operationally responsible for VW, has now been entrusted with the management. VW officially justified the change with the fact that Diess should be given more freedom as CEO. The real reason, however, is the allegation of violation of the law, as was said in the circles.
A VW spokesman confirmed that Diess apologized to the supervisory board for comments made at the management meeting.
