The Union probably had different ideas. With a CDU and CSU have launched an online campaign Two weeks before the European elections, a vote was launched. “Do you support the demand to repeal the ban on combustion engines?” it asks, with the answer options being yes or no. The Union makes no secret of its intentions: “Abolish the ban on combustion engines” is written directly above the question, complete with an exclamation mark. It is not a stretch to assume that the party would have liked to have gained the support of its voters for precisely this purpose by voting.
That backfired. By 11 p.m. on Friday evening, more than 100,000 people had already cast their votes. It was only annoying from the Union’s point of view: 84 percent said “no” to their demand.
:The great struggle for the future of the car
With a new report, the European Court of Auditors is fuelling the debate about phasing out combustion engines in 2035. The authority criticises how the EU states intend to achieve the goal.
In recent days, leading politicians from the CDU and CSU have made great efforts to explain the need to reverse the ban on combustion engines. “This ban on combustion engines must be reversed because we do not know today what kind of mobility can be developed in a truly environmentally neutral and climate-friendly way in the future,” said CDU Chairman Friedrich Merz this week at an election campaign event in Saarlouis. “The ban on combustion engines is damaging prosperity in our country. It is sawing off the branch we are sitting on,” said CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann in the Picture “The combustion engine is the basis of our prosperity in Germany. It would be madness to simply ban this technology,” says CSU General Secretary Martin Huber.
Following Manfred Weber and Markus Söder (both CSU), Merz, Linnemann and Huber are also finally breaking with a core of the policy of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The EU’s decision to no longer allow new cars with combustion engines from 2035 is a central part of the Green Deal, the major climate protection package of the current legislature. Although the EU Commission is due to review the progress made in 2026, a genuine reversal of the ban on combustion engines would undermine von der Leyen’s own legal act.
“Backward-looking and embarrassing”
“Is the Union now campaigning against its own top candidate?” Green Party leader Ricarda Lang asked the South German NewspaperThe party is collecting signatures against von der Leyen’s political successes. “This zigzag course creates uncertainty,” says Lang. Isabel Cademartori, the SPD parliamentary group’s spokesperson for transport policy, is even more explicit. “This whole CDU campaign is backward-looking and embarrassing,” she says, “only topped by the result of the vote.” Apparently, the citizens are more progressive than the CDU, says Cademartori, because they want climate-friendly mobility.
From the perspective of the SPD and the Greens, the German automotive industry needs one thing above all: planning security. “If things continue like this, the Union will endanger competitiveness, climate protection and prosperity,” says Ricarda Lang. In fact, most manufacturers and many suppliers have already prepared for the end of combustion engines and have invested heavily in e-mobility.
Recently, more and more German car managers have criticized the rigid timetable for the phase-out of combustion engines and called for more flexible rules, including BMW boss Oliver Zipse and Mercedes boss Ola Källenius. However, overturning the law would be wrong, says car expert Stefan Bratzel from the Center of Automotive Management (CAM), especially against the backdrop of declining registration numbers for electric cars. “That would lead to the public thinking that we don’t have to change,” he said. In addition, the discussion about the phase-out of combustion engines in connection with the expression “openness to technology” gives the impression that there are real alternatives to the electric car in the long term. “There aren’t any,” says Bratzel.