How Herbert Diess triggered the leadership crisis at VW

Wolfsburg, Düsseldorf Suddenly the supervisory board even wants Martin Winterkorn back. That was at least “sensible”, says Lower Saxony’s Prime Minister and Volkswagen supervisor Stephan Weil about the man under whom the company slipped into an existential crisis with the diesel affair. But Herbert Diess, the current VW boss? Because take a deep breath.

You have to be “happy” that nobody outside of this area knows what the cooperation between Diess and its major shareholder, the state of Lower Saxony, looks like. When the Diess contract was extended in July, discussions were held to tackle things jointly and by mutual agreement in the future. Puff cake. Since the signature, there has been no contact between Diess and the country. “That is not constructive,” says Weil. “That is not a good sign.”