Spoiler

1 March 2006 By Nina Koeppen

Pischetsrieder s position looked to be safe. But now VW chairman Piech has put him under fresh pressure by questioning his future. This should alarm investors. Piech would probably use the opportunity to replace him with one of his unionfriendly buddies.

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It is an open issue whether the contract of Volkswagen chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder will be extended, Ferdinand Piech said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Pischetsrieder – whose contract expires in April 2007 – may face strong opposition from the labour representatives on the carmaker's 20 memberstrong supervisory board, the VW chairman said. I feel … it's 10 to 10 votes, he added.

I've never known a corporation in Germany where somebody could survive with 10 votes of the labour side against him, he told the newspaper.

Piech said that he would vote with the shareholder representatives on the board. Porsche and Lower Saxony VW's main shareholders would also support Pischetsrieder, Piech said.

This was the second article within three days which suggested that Pischetsrieder's job may be on the line. According to Welt am Sonntag, the German Sunday newspaper, Audi boss Martin Winterkorn is hoping to take the steering wheel. Winterkorn has high hopes to inherit Pischetsrieder as head of the group, the paper cited a supervisory board member as saying.

Winterkorn is seen as a close friend of Piech, who has supported some of Piech's controversial projects, like the luxury sedan Phaeton.

VW declined to comment.

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