• “The ‘Zentrum’ slate has once again run in this year’s works council elections at Daimler in Untertürkheim. The group behind it, ‘Zentrum Automobil e.V.,’ is a neo-fascist workplace organization. According to its bylaws, its goal is to establish workplace groups in the automotive industry, starting with a pilot project at the automaker Daimler. The group has been active there at Daimler’s headquarters in Stuttgart-Untertürkheim for years …” Article by the MLPD from 2014 (week 17) – for more on the 2018 works council elections and the Nazis in other industries and companies, see our dossier: AfD & Co: After the Minds, Now Also in Workplaces and Works Councils?! And here, specifically regarding Daimler, the developments following the 2018 works council elections and thereafter:
  • The Far Right’s Struggle for the Working Class: On the Entrenchment and Significance of Zentrum and the AfD in Workplaces New
    “… For the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Zentrum offers an opportunity to exert a stronger influence on the German working class and to build organized support within workplaces. (…) Both parties address social policy issues by reinterpreting the contradiction between capital and labor—that is, the conflict between the bottom and the top—as a conflict between the inside and the outside. In doing so, they ethnicize the class conflict; for example, low wages are not interpreted as a consequence of labor market deregulation, but rather as a result of supposedly poorly qualified workers with a migration background who are said to be driving down wage levels. This approach allows for the promotion of harmonious material conditions among Germans, while the central conflict over distribution is shifted outward. (…) At least for now, Zentrum is not in a position to establish itself as a powerful alternative to the DGB unions. The real danger, however, lies less in the currently unrealistic prospect of a competing mass union. Far more significant is the potential to shift political frames of reference and strengthen right-wing narratives in workplace debates…“ Article by Mathias Hoose and Tim Ackermann “” in *express*—Journal for Socialist Workplace and Union Work, Issue 9/2026
  • Zentrum Automobil Caused Heart Rhythm Disturbances Ahead of Works Council Elections
    “… The tragedy is that the fascists are fulfilling their historical mission and, with some skill, filling a vacuum left by the left and radicals. Climate change, the erosion of the skilled workforce’s standard of living, structural stupidity, and management corruption—just as in the U.S.—fuel climate deniers and internal combustion engine chauvinists. Just as the NSDAP did in the 1930s, the AfD’s trade union cell “Zentrum”—in addition to its smear campaigns against the Greens and climate activists—is adopting left-wing rhetoric to lure the working class. Back then, it was criticism of party and union bigwigs. Kurt Tucholsky and Erich Mühsam erected literary monuments to these real-life bigwigs. For strategic reasons, “Zentrum” is pro-works council this time around and is agitating radically—in its rhetoric—against “co-management”—at least in the heart of IG Metall.
    The great advantage of fascism: it appeals to emotions and myths. It doesn’t have to be logical or consistent; it can lie, incite, distort, make false promises, and literally entangle itself in contradictions. Together with the CDU, the AfD will dismantle the Works Constitution Act as a “bureaucratic monster” and grant alternative representative bodies the same legal status as works councils. An example of where this is headed was provided by the dubious solar sales company Enpal, which is profiting from the natural gas crisis caused by sanctions against Russia and whose sales model resembles a pyramid scheme. In mid-February, a celebratory mob of apparently brainwashed solar salespeople plunged a preparatory election meeting for the works council election into chaos for the second time    …” Article by Jessica Reisner and Elmar Wigand from March 13, 2026, on “Labor Injustice in Germany” externer Link
  • [Environmental Union Flyer] For strong and militant unions. For progressive and environmentally conscious works councils. Fascists and climate crisis deniers are not the “opposition”!
    “Tens of thousands of jobs were destroyed last year—including apprenticeships for young people—in the auto, steel, healthcare, and other industries. The workforces are fighting back—and rightly so! ‘A strike is in the air’—and that’s a good thing! Of course, this doesn’t suit the corporate CEOs at all. So what do they do? ‘Divide and conquer’—their old strategy. That’s another reason why capital is increasingly supporting fascist forces. And they direct our anger toward scapegoats—whichever happens to be convenient: “environmentalists,” “migrants,” “Chinese”… whatever fits the bill at the moment. Fascists in “modern” disguise are also trying to establish structures within workplaces. First under the name “Zentrum Automobil,” now “ZENTRUM.” To this end, they want to use works council elections. It’s interesting how the fascist Höcke promoted the “Zentrum” at an AfD party convention: the AfD “needs such alternative unions” as front organizations! “A Closer Look at These People’s Arguments…” Flyer on the 2026 works council elections from the Environmental Union externer Link; see also:
  • When former AfD leader Alice Weidel and the right-wing pseudo-union “Zentrum” hand out flyers at the Mercedes plant in Untertürkheim (and Danial Bamdadi fights against it)…