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Open warfare yesterday broke out on Volkswagen's supervisory board as right-wing politicians and union officials locked horns on attempts to score political points over the alleged bribery scandal at Europe's largest carmaker.
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One particular target of the opposition Christian Democrats is likely to be the principle of co-determination under which workers are involved in strategic decision-making. Mr Peters accused Mr Wulff of trying to discredit the whole idea of co-determination. One VW executive said: "All these guys should stop using VW to fight their own political battles."

VW, which is closely watched in German industry for how it deals with labour problems, took the idea further and developed co-management, which led some people to see Klaus Volkert, the former works council head who denies any wrongdoing in the scandal, as the real boss at the carmaker.

The scandal has caused VW to put on hold negotiations to build a factory in India as well as an assembly line in Angola after allegations that the former head of personnel at Skoda, Helmuth Schuster, had asked for bribes in the two projects.

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Financial Times: VW dispute descends into open warfare