VDA Warns 225,000 Auto Jobs at Risk; AfD Courts Workers

Two long-running pressure points on Germany converged on May 13: a structural industrial warning from the country's car-industry lobby, and a far-right vector that is now reaching into the workforce the warning describes.

The German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) warned that up to 225,000 jobs could be lost by 2035 — 35,000 more than its earlier forecast. VDA President Hildegard Müller said the shift from combustion engines to electric vehicles was hitting suppliers hardest and described a "serious and persistent location crisis" across Germany and Europe. She named high taxes, energy costs and labour costs as the main competitiveness drag and warned that "the relocation of investments and jobs will inevitably impact Germany's prosperity as well as its social and political stability." The VDA said greater technology openness could preserve up to 50,000 of those jobs if applied on the path to climate neutrality. Müller flagged a political consequence directly: the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is targeting businesses and employees who feel insecure about their jobs.

The diplomatic part of that vector ran through Moscow. Putin adviser Anton Kobyakov invited Bundestag members Markus Frohnmaier and Steffen Kotré to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) in June, with three party politicians confirming attendance, according to a letter seen by POLITICO. Putin is expected to attend the forum, which mainstream European leaders have shunned since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea — making the AfD invitation a deliberate cut against the European mainstream consensus.

The political vector continued at the municipal level. A candidate from the far-right Freie Sachsen group won the first round of the mayoral election in the Erzgebirge region of Saxony, occupying space to the right of the AfD itself. The Erzgebirge has been a far-right protest hub for over a decade, including the 2013 torch march in Schneeberg.