BMW family gave €690,000 to Merkel party
Angela Merkel’s political party received three donations totalling €690,000 from the family that in effect controls BMW just as the German chancellor was lobbying fellow EU leaders to block tougher exhaust emission standards for big cars, it emerged on Tuesday. Details of the contributions – the largest private gifts to any German political party in election year – were published on the Bundestag website just a day after the German government successfully delayed a decision on the new standards at a meeting of EU environment ministers. The German parliament revealed that Johanna Quandt, widow of Herbert Quandt, who transformed BMW into one of the country’s most successful carmakers, and her children Stefan and Susanne, each gave the Christian Democratic Union €230,000 on October 9. The three jointly own 46.7 per cent of shares in the Munich-based company. They have been supporters of the party for many years, according to a statement from CDU headquarters in Berlin. Ms Quandt and her children donated €450,000 immediately after the previous election campaign in 2009. "The donations are not connected with any single political decision," the statement said. The same message was repeated by a spokesman for the publicity-shy family: "The donations are in no way connected to industrial policies," he said. "They are not involved in political talks about emission regulations or anything like that." He said the donations were made after the election was over to ensure they did not become part of the election campaign. But LobbyControl, an organisation campaigning for greater transparency in political financing in Germany, said the timing of the gifts was "extremely problematic". Quite apart from choosing to pay the money after the campaign was over, the choice of timing was "highly explosive" because of its proximity to the latest delay in agreement on the new EU standards for CO2 in car exhausts, said Christina Deckwirth, Berlin representative of the organisation. Ms Merkel personally intervened to delay the Brussels decision, which would benefit small car manufacturers from countries such as France and Italy, but penalise the bigger cars in which Germany specialises. She sent her chief of staff, Roland Pofalla, to Paris last week for high-level talks, and contacted many of the other EU leaders, including those with big industries supplying parts to the German manufacturers. She was seeking a solution that would both protect the environment and jobs in the motor industry, and did not suggest trade-offs with other countries that would mix the emissions issue with other unrelated questions such as banking regulation, as suggested in some UK reports, a senior official said. In a front-page report on Tuesday, the business newspaper Handelsblatt dubbed her the "car chancellor", underlining her frequent and intensive contacts with senior motor industry executives. It reported that she had invited various senior managers more than 65 times to the chancellor’s office during the last four-year parliamentary term, not simply for big events, but also for one-on-one meetings. The German car industry is a mainstay of the German economy, accounting for around 715,000 employees and 600 manufacturers and suppliers, according to the VDA car industry association. One in every seven German university graduates starts a career in the industry. Ensuring its car companies flourish is therefore of high importance for any government in Berlin. The issue of political financing remains a bone of contention in Germany, with Transparency International, the anti-corruption campaign, calling for a ceiling of €50,000 a year for any personal or company donation. Christian Humborg, executive director of TI in Germany, said the Berlin government was lagging behind standards proposed by the Council of Europe, although it now required publication of details of donations over €50,000 within six days. He said that Joachim Gauck, state president, should convene a new party finance commission to regulate donations more strictly.