interview
Reinhold Würth, 89 and one of the country’s best-known entrepreneurs, has advised his employees not to vote for the AfD. In an interview, he talks about the reactions – and posters for Willy Brandt.
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Mr. Würth, in March you wrote a letter to your employees and recommended that they not vote for the AfD in the European elections. How do you view the political situation now? Is our democracy in danger?
Reinhold Würth: After the election in France, I am actually optimistic that democracy is stronger than anyone had imagined. I was incredibly pleased with that, and nobody in France had actually expected that Ms. Le Pen and her party would only come third. Now the pro-Europe faction is at least two-thirds strong in France. That is reassuring and a great gain for Europe as a whole.
How do you assess the situation in Germany?
The AfD promises all sorts of things. We have had an AfD district administrator in Sonneberg in Thuringia for a year. I read that he is very rarely present, mainly takes care of AfD events and has not achieved much in his district. That already takes a little bit of the shine off. Even if the AfD came into government in a federal state, people would notice that the AfD can’t keep much of what it promises. Then the euphoria among the citizens would be put into perspective.
What reactions did you receive to your letter?
I have only received positive comments myself. A few negative letters to the editor have appeared, and there also seem to be a few negative comments floating around the internet. But just as people voted in the European elections, you have to look at the way my letter was formed: the vast majority see it as positive. And I have expressly not forced anyone to do anything. I have only made a recommendation. Anyone who voted for the AfD despite this has no reason to fear any disadvantages in the company. As long as the AfD is not banned, anyone can be an AfD member here. However, if someone advertises for the party and recruits members in the company, that would be grounds for dismissal because we do not allow political statements on our campus.
Have there been such cases?
In any case, I haven’t heard anything about it.
What actually prompted you to write this letter?
I feel a strong connection to democracy and of course to the European idea. We have so many employees with a migrant background. If they all stopped coming to work, it would simply mean the collapse of the company. And I am a fervent supporter of the Basic Law. I have had the grace of being able to fully experience the development of the Republic. I was 14 years old when the constitution was passed. It actually went wonderfully well and I experienced many things.
What for example?
That’s a bit funny today. When Willy Brandt first came into government, the election campaign said: If Brandt comes to power, everything will be nationalized. Then everything will become communist, then everything will become left-wing. Then the whole republic will collapse. Back then, as a young businessman, I took out full-page advertisements with a text that went something like: If there isn’t enough for a CDU/FDP government, then an SPD/FDP government must also be possible. In doing so, I documented that democracy works and that not everything has to be dominated by the CDU. The CDU didn’t exactly greet that with “Hurrah!” at the time. Since then, I have been a swing voter and I orient myself towards the programs and what is politically reasonable and sensible. For this reason, because I feel connected to the democratic party state, I wrote this letter to the employees.
And how do you view the foreign policy situation? Now we not only have the war in Ukraine, but also a war in the Middle East.
The war in Ukraine is of course ten times more dangerous than the one in Israel in international comparison. It worries me greatly. Putin cannot really afford to lose. And the Ukrainians cannot lose either. It is squaring the circle and I do not know how to get out of it. That is why there is a great danger that one more war will keep coming. It is not for nothing that Stephen Hawking said that humanity only has a chance of surviving if it can settle on another planet.
Source: Stern
