At the rally in the US state of Georgia, Trump announced that Audi plans to invest around $4 billion to build a new factory and start producing cars in the United States for the first time. Döllner joined Trump on stage and thanked him for his support.
The announcement comes as Volkswagen faces a deep crisis amid major restructuring in Germany, with factory closures and massive layoffs expected.
MEP Dennis Radtke of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party also blasted Döllner’s participation in the Republican election rally. “Donald Trump’s policies are causing considerable harm to German industry, including the automobile industry,” he told German media outlet Handelsblatt.
“The fact that German companies invest abroad is initially a completely normal and understandable process. However, turning this into a staged election campaign for Donald Trump is worrying and pathetic,” he added.
German union leaders joined in condemning Döllner. Christiane Benner, first president of IG Metall, Germany’s largest industrial union, said Monday: “The way Gernot Döllner has presented himself and Audi in the United States is very embarrassing, politically unacceptable and unworthy of the company – and, above all, unworthy of the people who work at Audi.”
“Döllner blatantly violates internal company policies, which explicitly mandate political neutrality in the run-up to elections,” she added.
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