Chancellor Angela Merkel was the center of a televised question and answer session with voters tackling issues of security, the status of immigrants and the VW emissions scandal. She is standing for a fourth term.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/F. Ostrop
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Without notes or an auto-cue, Chancellor Angela Merkel took part in the live discussion program on RTL, Germany's largest private free-to-air broadcaster, on Sunday evening.
Voters posed questions to the chancellor as she seeks a fourth term in September's elections. Opinion polls currently show Merkel's Christian Democratic Party (CDU) with its Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) will be the largest party but without an overall majority.
Given attacks in Germany and more recently in Barcelona, Merkel was asked what measures her government would take to improve security. Merkel said that a combination of policing and use of technology had to be used to ensure safety. She said that while there were an estimated 10,000 individuals who had been radicalized to extremist views in Germany, only 600 to 700 of them were deemed to be dangerous.
Merkel criticized Turkey's use of an Interpol arrest warrant to detain and seek extradition of German writer Dogan Akhanli in Spain on Saturday as an abuse of the international police agency. "It is not right and I'm very glad that Spain has now released him," Merkel said. "We must not misuse international organizations like Interpol for such purposes."
Emphasis on security
The chancellor said she would attempt to unify police equipment and procedures across Germany's 16 states. She noted that many do not understand police checks and video surveillance are all managed differently across the country's states.
She said her Christian Democrats would attempt to unify police methods, saying: "I will also speak again with state premiers myself."
Police in Hamburg after the July knife attackImage: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Scholz
Merkel also stood by her decision to open Germany's borders to hundreds of thousands of refugees two years ago. Asked whether now she would have done it differently, she said: "I still think my decision was right." She called for more solidarity across Europe to help countries such as Italy and Greece to deal with the large numbers of migrants arriving at their borders.
One voter also posed the question as to why asylum seekers were not allowed to work while their cases were being reviewed with some individuals saying they had waited years being funded by tax-payers when they just wanted to work.
Merkel lays into auto industry
Merkel told voters that she was disappointed in the German auto industry following Volkswagen's "Dieselgate" scandal. She said as a former environment minister she understood the consquences.
"I am angry," Merkel told the audience. The car industry risked serious damage in the scandal and "they have to make up for this as much as they can," she noted. She said the new software was available.
When asked by one car owner why Germans received more modest compensation in the scandal than US car owners, Merkel said it was the result of two very different legal systems.
Dieselgate: A timeline
VW's emissions scandal plunged the automaker into its deepest crisis ever. It brought with it everlasting damage to VW's reputation and massive fees and penalties — not to mention compensation claims from car owners.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J. Stratenschulte
The disaster unfolds — September 2015
About two weeks after Volkswagen admitted behind closed doors to US environmental regulators that it had installed cheating software in some 11 million of its diesel vehicles worldwide, the Environmental Protection Agency shared that information with the public. It was September 18, 2015. The ensuing crisis would eventually take a few unexpected turns.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/O. Spata
The boss must go, long live the boss — September 2015
Volkswagen's then-CEO Martin Winterkorn (above) had little choice but to step down several days after news of the scandal broke. In September 2015, he tendered his resignation, but retained his other posts within the Volkswagen Group. Winterkorn's successor was Matthias Müller. Until taking the reins at VW, Müller had been the chairman at Porsche, a VW subsidiary.
Image: picture-alliance/Sven Simon
Raiding headquarters — October 2015
Regulators in the US weren't the only ones investigating VW. Authorities in Lower Saxony, the German state in which VW is based, were also scrutinizing the company. On October 8 2015, state prosecutors raided VW's headquarters along with several other corporate locations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Steffen
Hell breaks loose — January 2016
On January 4, 2016, the US government filed a lawsuit against VW in Detroit, accusing the German automaker of fraud and violations of American climate protection regulations. The lawsuit sought up to $46 billion for violations of the Clean Air Act.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Burgi
Quit or forced out? — March 2016
In March 2016, the head of VW in the US, Michael Horn, resigned. In the initial days and weeks after the scandal broke, he was the one US authorities turned to for information. He issued an official apology on behalf of the automaker, asking for the public's forgiveness.
Image: Getty Images/C. Somodevilla
Settlement — October 2016
On October 25 2016, a US judge approved a final settlement that would have VW pay $15.3 billion. In addition, affected cars would be retrofitted with better, non-deceptive hardware and software, or else VW would buy them back completely from customers.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/P. Pleul
Imitators — July 2017
When dieselgate first emerged in 2015, analysts said it was likely other car makers were also cheating tests. But it wasn't until 2017 that other companies were targeted in probes. In July, German authorities launched investigations into luxury car makers Porsche and Daimler for allegedly cheating emissions tests. Others, such as Audi and Chrysler, have also been hit by similar allegations.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Kraufmann
Public still supportive — December 2017
Despite dieselgate, VW has managed to keep the emissions scandal from utterly tarnishing its image. According to several polls, between 55 to 67 percent of Germans continue to trust the automaker. In the US, polls show that roughly 50 percent still believe the German company produces worthwhile vehicles.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Klose
Fuming over monkeys — January 2018
In late January, however, VW suffered another heavy blow over reports that the company experimented on monkeys and made the animals inhale diesel fumes. To make matters worse, a separate experiment that had humans inhale relatively harmless nitrogen dioxide was revealed at the same time. Some media wrongly interpreted this to mean humans were also inhaling toxic fumes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/F. Gentsch
Canadian court demands millions — January 2020
Years after the scandal that caused Volkswagen to pay CAN$2.4 billion (US$1.83 billion), a court in Toronto order a further fine of CAN$196.5 million. Volkswagen pleaded guilty of violating in environmental laws. Prosecutor Tom Lemon noted that the fine was "26 times the highest fine ever for a Canadian environmental offence."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Knipping
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However, she called on the auto industry to compensate customers in Germany whose cars are less valuable as a result of the scandal, saying that otherwise "the German car industry, which is admired the world over, could suffer substantial harm."
Merkel urged German carmakers, who have all been caught cheating on nitrogen emissions tests, to re-establish public trust in diesel fuel. "We need diesel if we are to achieve our climate protection goals," she said. Cars powered by diesel emit less of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide but more of nitrogen dioxide that can cause breathing problems.
