Erdogan dismisses Volkswagen: The President of Turkey is taking revenge for a change in the Wolfsburg plan

Volkswagen has stepped down from its construction plans for a new manufacturing plant in Turkey.

Now it seems that Erdogan's first reactions to this decision have been made.

• Volkswagen

  *

  had planned to build a manufacturing plant on the west coast of Turkey in Manisa.

• The plant was supposed to mainly

  produce

  the

  VW

  Passat and Superb models and was designed for an annual capacity of 300,000 units.

• But then the

  Wolfsburg-based company changed its

  mind.

• The power-conscious Turkish President

  Recep Tayyip Erdogan

  does not want to accept that and is now taking a counterstrike.

Ankara - There

seems to be a thick air

between

Volkswagen

and Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdogan

*.

Last July, the car manufacturer announced that it would stop the planned construction of a new production plant in

Manisa,

Turkey,

due to

Erdogan's

aggressive foreign policy

.

As the government-critical newspaper

Sözcü claims to

have found out,

Erdogan is

now

planning

a retaliatory strike.

According to the report, the Turkish president wants to do without

VW company

cars in the

future

.

VW plant in Turkey: Is the construction freeze the reason for Erdogan's VW Tuesday car boycott?

The construction of the

VW

plant in Manisa had been controversial for a long time.

The plans for the completion of the

VW

plant

were already announced in October 2019

due to

Erdogan's

expansionary foreign policy

*

postponed.

At that time,

Turkey

* announced a military offensive in Syria to curb the influence of the Kurdish militias (YPG) in northern Syria.

A few months later, in July 2020, the automaker announced that the planned construction had been canceled.

VW

justified the construction freeze with the low demand due to the

Corona

* pandemic

.

“From today's point of view, it is not necessary to build up additional capacities,” said a statement from the group.

However, the Turkish government suspected that the construction freeze was politically motivated.

Industry and Technology Minister

Mustafa Varank

said at a press conference in

January

.

"We knew there were some people who politically didn't want [this investment in Turkey]," said Varank.

"If a company is listed on the stock exchange, then it is a fraud against the investor if decisions are made due to political pressure." According to reports, political concerns from workforce representatives on the

VW

supervisory board also played a role in

addition to the economic aspects

.

VW construction freeze in Turkey: Erdogan decommissioned VW company cars

The decision by

Volkswagen

is expected

Erdogan

met sensitive.

The Turkish economy has been weak for several months.

Although

Erdogan was

able to

curb the two-year decline in the Turkish lira by raising interest rates last autumn, financial experts see this as only a temporary trend reversal.

The

VW

investment would therefore have been a successful coup for the economically stricken country.

The 1.4 billion euro building should be completed by 2022 and have an annual production capacity of 300,000 units.

The plant should create around 4,000 jobs in Manisa in western Turkey.

A Turkish subsidiary of

VW

with a capital of 164 million dollars

has already been founded for the construction

.

Erdogan

is likely to have made

Volkswagen's

decision

directly.

According to reports from the

Bloomberg

news agency

, the Turkish president was personally involved in the negotiations with

VW

.

In October 2019, for example, he should take over the leadership of the

AKP

*

have instructed to

switch

to the

VW

Passat.

Many observers see

Erdogan's

plans for

Volkswagen

and

Audi in the

future

*

to be removed from his government fleet in response to the construction freeze.

It is not yet known how many

VW company

cars the Turkish state intends to retire.

According to research by the Turkish newspaper

Sözcü

, however, it is known that Turkish government institutions used 115,000 cars in 2018.

According to the report, the government is said to have spent up to 537 million lira, the equivalent of 94 million dollars, on renting company cars.

(

phf

)

Merkur.de

is part of the Ippen digital network.