automobile
CDU: Online vote on combustion engine ban manipulated
“Tens of thousands of votes cast automatically”: Carsten Linnemann. Photo
© Michael Kappeler/dpa
The CDU wants to overturn the ban on new cars with combustion engines that will come into force in 2035. An online survey was supposed to help with this – but it turned out completely differently than planned.
An online vote by the CDU on the ban on new According to Secretary General Carsten Linnemann, cars with combustion engines have been manipulated “with criminal energy”.
“Any manipulation of votes is unacceptable in an election campaign,” he told “Bild am Sonntag”. Christoph Schleifer from the company commissioned to conduct the survey also spoke of massive manipulation. “Tens of thousands of votes were cast automatically.” The CDU was therefore advised to cancel the vote – which is what happened.
By the morning, more than 85 percent of participants had spoken out against the CDU’s demand to lift the ban. No registration was required to participate; voting was anonymous.
Under the heading “Germany must remain an automobile country,” the CDU writes on its website: “The modern combustion engine is a German cutting-edge technology. It must be able to be further developed in a technology-neutral manner. Clean synthetic fuels play a central role in this.”
EU Commission President announces review of combustion engine phase-out
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen recently stressed that the decision taken at EU level to phase out combustion engines will be reviewed in 2026. In 2022, the EU agreed that from 2035 onwards, no new cars running on petrol or diesel should be registered.
The aim is to massively reduce emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases. Germany has enshrined in its Climate Protection Act the goal of reducing emissions by 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 and aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2045.
FDP calls for exceptions for e-fuels
When the agreement was reached at EU level, it was already stated that there would be a review in 2026. In the federal government, it was primarily the FDP that had pushed for cars that were fueled exclusively with climate-friendly e-fuels to be exempt from the so-called combustion engine ban.
Most recently, BMW CEO Oliver Zipse, among others, sharply criticized the EU ban on new petrol and diesel cars from 2035. Raw materials such as lithium, cobalt and rare earths are lacking for the mass production of electric cars. This would make Europe dependent on imports and vulnerable to political blackmail, he told the “Handelsblatt”.