Audi Chief Gernot Dollner Faces Fierce Criticism in Germany for Appearing at Trump Rally

Gernot Dollner, the head of luxury carmaker Audi, has come under fierce criticism in Germany for appearing at a rally with Donald Trump just days before the US midterm elections to announce billions of dollars of investment in the battleground state of Georgia.

On Saturday, Dollner joined Trump on stage at a rally in Perry, near Macon in Georgia, after the US president's speech. There they announced that Audi would spend $4bn to build its first factory in the US and create 4,500 jobs.

At the rally, Dollner said Audi planned to bring its biggest and most premium SUVs and produce them in Macon, Georgia. He described the plans as a long-term investment because the company believed in the American market. Under the plans, factory construction would start next year and car production would begin in the 2030s. The Macon plant would build 200,000 SUVs annually.

Audi is the only premium car manufacturer without its own factory in the US, making it particularly vulnerable to Trump's 15 percent import tariffs, which cost it an estimated 1.2 billion euros last year, according to the report.

Daniela Cavallo, the head of the works council at Audi's parent company Volkswagen, criticised Trump's speech as full of racism, sexism, transphobia and contempt for democracy. According to internal company communications released to German media, she said anyone who heard that speech and then saw Dollner become an active participant in the event must sink into the ground with shame. She said the investment deal and Dollner's appearance showed VW's management had allowed itself to be turned into a puppet in the propaganda show of a highly dubious political figure.

Isabel Cademartori, the transport spokesperson for Germany's Social Democrats, part of the country's ruling coalition, called Dollner's actions a disgrace. She said this was particularly so in view of the history of the Volkswagen Group.

A spokesperson for the German government declined to comment on the matter, calling it a business decision regarding where the company invests and where its chief executive appears.

Christiane Benner, the head of the powerful German trade union IG Metall, called Dollner's US appearance extremely embarrassing, politically unacceptable and unworthy of the company and of Audi's employees. She accused Dollner of a flagrant breach of the company's code of conduct, which expressly requires political neutrality in the run-up to elections. She warned that any major investment like the Macon plant would have to go before VW's supervisory board. Benner is the board's deputy chair.

The row comes as Volkswagen is locked in a battle between management and labour over a push to cut as many as 100,000 jobs and close factories. The company has blamed the downsizing on intense competition from Chinese carmakers, US tariffs and the expensive transition to electric vehicles. Audi's facility in Neckarsulm, which employs 15,000 people, is among four VW plants threatened with closure from early next decade, according to the report.