The group has now filed for bankruptcy.
(Photo: dpa)
In the past 16 years, the shipyards in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania were saved with one argument: That is where the constituency of Chancellor Angela Merkel is located. It was irrelevant whether the CDU, CSU or the SPD provided the Federal Minister of Economics.
On Monday, MV Werften filed for bankruptcy after the federal and state governments were unable to agree on further rescue loans with the Malaysian owner Genting. Green politician Robert Habeck now has a great opportunity to end this regulatory nonsense. He would have the new Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner by his side.
As bitter as it is for the 2,000 shipyard employees and their families, the shipyards have long been a challenge trophy for dubious oligarchs. Nordic Yards was the toy of a Russian oligarch’s son. The current owner of MV Werften, who made his money with casinos, among other things, is not prepared to give the federal government sufficient guarantees.
The federal and state governments must end this development now. Otherwise another million grave threatens.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
The cruise lines are also in crisis and happy about every ship that they don’t have to remove. Nevertheless, no politician dared to rely on structural change at the shipyard locations. Everyone relied on Merkel, and no Federal Minister of Economics was the last to complain.
Jobs with a future are necessary
The planned federal and state working group to initiate structural change is at least ten years too late. The most important thing will be that the highly qualified employees receive their salaries and then find new jobs. But this is particularly difficult in the northeast.
Manuela Schwesig’s left-wing government should not only demand state aid from her party friend and Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania must create the conditions for jobs with a future to be finally created. Simply relying on tourism is not enough. That, too, is a bitter lesson from the corona crisis.
More: Pressure from all sides – The cruise industry is caught in the corona vortex