At 56th Annual General Meeting Mr. Hans Dieter Pötsch, Chairman of the Supervisory Board, only pretends to respect Shareholder Rights of Speech.
(Zur deutschen Version dieses Texts)
In fact Pötsch seems to sabotage the Speakers by all available means.
The General Meeting is defined by law with the intent to provide a platform for the exchange of Opinion, exchange of Information and declaration of will. But Pötsch disrespects this Intent. Thus the Meeting becomes unproductive. The Meeting degenerates to an absurde and disgusting rite.
On the surface, VW respects its duty to provide all Shareholder with the means to participate in the annual Decision-Making.
Like on the surface, VW respected its duty to reduce NOx Emmissions of its Diesel cars.
But as there was a lack of real commitment to reduce NOx Emmissions, at 56th Annual General Meeting one can observe the Chairmans lack of real commitment to respect the Rights of small shareholders.
As Volkswagen broke law in the context of the Volkswagen scandal, the Chairman stretches, or even brakes law to hinder small shareholders to speak in an appropriate way.
Disgusting example of a dirty Trick, which I expect to be dirty but legal:
As Jens Hilgenberg from BUND is about to start his speach, Pötsch reduces time of Speach from five to three Minutes. No notification in advance. A blunt act of sabotage, obviously intended to degrade the quality of his speach. But Hilgenberg copes with this difficult situation. He gives a speach of quality.
Disgusting example of a dirty Trick, which I expect to be illegal:
Pötsch decides to repeat the discussion and voting of the proposal to replace him as Leader of assembly. He pretends, a formal difference of proposal would render this absurd repition „alternativlos“.
But 99% of shares already had declared their will to keep Pötsch, they already had declared their will not to replace Pötsch by someone else from the Supervisory Board.
They did not want to replace Pötsch by Mr. Wolfgang Porsche, neither by Mr. Stephan Weil or Mrs. Babette Fröhlich.
This fact is not only obvious, but it is in an appropriate way formally declared when Pötsch starts the redundant waste of time.
By accepting an obviously redundant proposal, Pötsch does incredible harm to the Institution of the General Assembly. Harm beyond wasted time worth 100.000€ (My calculation, german text available here.)
(There are more Manipulations. German text available here.)
Pötsch uses any available means to render the podium in Hall 3 unattractive. To move the small shareholders from the podium in Hall 3 to the snacks in Hall 2 he does not shy away from illegal means.
His intent is obvious: small shareholders shall have a good time eating, drinking and enjoing the Volkswagens product exhibition in Hall 2. They shall forget their shareholder rights and focus on their identity as consumers.
To achieve this aim, Pötch needs to turn the discussion in Hall 3 more boring then the snacks in Hall 2.
