I am not the person who will decide my successor. Others will make that decision. Left unsaid is that members of the supervisory board will listen carefully to Piech's views. I would like my successor to develop it better than I have. That would allow me to sail around the world.
Wolfsburg watchers are skeptical.
This scenario would be all too familiar to Pischetsrieder if he does become Volkswagen's chairman. When he replaced Eberhard von Kuenheim as BMW AG chairman in 1993, his predecessor became chairman of the supervisory board. From that position, the grand old man of BMW kept a close watch on his protege. Between them, they managed to botch the takeover of Rover Group, which BMW had purchased only 11 months after Pischetsrieder became chairman. The episode is the biggest blot on the man's otherwise faultless career.