Political Chatter

It wasn't front-page news, but this item came up last week, and has generated a bit of discussion in Germany.

Most all of the major commercial companies in Germany donate money to political parties.  I won't suggest all of them get money like this, but for the big parties like the CDU or SPD....it's a virtual guaranteed thing.

So Daimler came up and said that for 2019, it's finished and will NOT donate money to any party, period.  Chief reason?  They left that blank, but I think they were sending a message to both the CDU and SPD parties.....that this diesel woes business had affected them, and the parties weren't doing much to resolve this mess.

The amount that usually came through?  I did a fair amount of reading and the best numbers I could find were a yearly payment of 320,000 Euro to the political parties.  It wasn't split up or spoken over which parties got the money, but I would assume that the CDU, CSU, SPD, Green Party and FDP probably got that chunk of money.

The odds that this will 'snowball' and several other companies might quit?  It wouldn't shock me if VW and BMW also do the same....just to send a message.

Does this lessen 'democracy'?  I know, it's an amusing thought.  Basically, this yearly donation by Daimler was supposed to get them some inside seat, and ensure things went their way.  So they've made a statement that they are frustrated, and will just stand back to see if the political parties react.  If other companies repeat the practice?  This would ultimately trigger the parties into finding lesser accommodations for their party meetings, and cut down on these meetings.