Op-Ed by CEO Matthias Zachert

“We have zero tolerance for far-right views at LANXESS!“

“Many are currently calling for us in the business world to take a clear stand against extremism. Like LANXESS and myself, most other business owners and CEOs should find this easy to do – we have zero tolerance for extremism of any kind at our factories and offices. And this is especially true for anti-Semitism. We always expect – and require – that everyone interacts with each other in a respectful manner. As a country and as an economy, we are dependent on Germany remaining open-minded and accepting of other cultures.
Particularly in the face of demographic change, we must remain attractive to the world’s brightest minds. Freedom, tolerance, and respect are the basic requirements for this. And for an exporting nation, national isolation of any kind is a mistake anyway.

All of this is really just a given, simply a matter of course. And although particularly those of us at multinational corporations certainly have some catching up to do when it comes to being open-minded and tolerant, in times like these it is important to keep repeating these things as a matter of course.

Statements of commitment alone are unlikely to be enough to stop extremists and populists in their tracks, however. To achieve this, we need more clarity and more wisdom on all sides, but above all more common sense. By that I mean, first and foremost, more common sense in politics. “Politics begins by looking at reality,” is a much-quoted saying. The reality is that Europe is becoming less competitive. Our global competitors are currently overtaking us.

To me, a sensible policy for Europe would therefore be to focus all our energy on regaining our European competitiveness – and not on patronizing the entire world in matters of climate and morality, for example. Which ultimately doesn’t help us or our cause. To me as an executive in the chemicals industry, things like the EU Taxonomy, the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), and aspects of the new European chemicals policy are examples of how we are harming ourselves through Brussels’ overregulation and bureaucracy. And all without significantly improving the world.

Sensible politics adopts a measured approach (...). I would like to see European policymaking (and a powerful German contribution to it!) that does everything it can to keep Europe strong and efficient. Policymaking that gives people on our wonderful continent the opportunity to preserve and increase their prosperity. (...)“