Bundestag
Union faction manager Frei supports the Würth campaign
Thorsten Frei (CDU) supports the action of “screw king” Reinhold Würth. photo
© Bernd von Jutrczenka/dpa
With an unusual call, “Screw King” Würth joins the protests against the AfD. Applause comes from the CDU/CSU in the Bundestag. There is, however, an important limitation.
The head of the Union faction in The Bundestag has welcomed the action of “screw king” Reinhold Würth, who advises his employees against voting for the AfD.
You can “expect important people in the economy to show what they stand for,” said the Parliamentary Managing Director of the CDU/CSU MPs, Thorsten Frei (CDU), to the German Press Agency in Berlin. As an owner-entrepreneur, Würth “of course has every right and, above all, a high level of credibility if he doesn’t turn his heart into a murder pit, but also gives his employees his assessment,” added Frei.
“What he did was completely legitimate”
The 88-year-old billionaire and family businessman Würth joined the protests against the AfD in a five-page letter and advised his 25,000 employees in Germany not to vote for the party. Würth began an apprenticeship in his father’s then small business at the age of 14 before taking over at the age of 19 after his death in 1954. Today he is chairman of the foundation’s supervisory board. The billionaire is one of the richest Germans.
Frei said that one can only support Würth and I think what he did was completely legitimate. It is to be welcomed that important business representatives showed that “our liberal democracy” and the social market economy are the basis for successful companies. These are structural principles “that have made Germany what it is. That is the basis of our success.” It is “an illusion to believe that Germany would have been as successful with any political system as we have been over the past seven decades.”
The economy has a charisma in society similar to trade unions, churches or other large social organizations, said Frei. “We live in a democracy. And a democracy only lives if there are democrats.” However, there is a “huge difference” whether such actions involve an owner-entrepreneur and partner like Würth, “or whether it is an employed manager.” For the latter, “that wouldn’t work. And of course it especially doesn’t work for those who are financed from public funds.”