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Article snippet: FRANKFURT — Sometimes it is hard to tell where the German government ends and the auto industry begins. Daimler and Volkswagen’s top lobbyists were once close aides to Chancellor Angela Merkel. The foreign minister, Sigmar Gabriel, used to sit on Volkswagen’s supervisory board. Ms. Merkel herself once buttonholed the governor of California to complain about the state’s strict emissions standards. Those close relations between public officials and car manufacturers were once considered vital economic policy for Germany’s most important export. Now, they are a political liability. Weeks before national elections, voters increasingly see the government as complicit with carmakers in a widening diesel crisis that threatens the German economy. While Ms. Merkel is still heavily favored to win, the chancellor and her political rivals consider the automakers toxic and have begun to distance themselves from them. The backlash has been building since 2015, when United States regulators uncovered widespread emissions cheating by Volkswagen, Europe’s largest automaker. The broadening case, which has also ensnared BMW and Daimler, has called attention to the harmful effects of nitrogen oxide emissions from diesel vehicles. Cities across Europe are considering diesel bans, and sales of diesel engines are plummeting. “I’m just as angry about the fraud as you,” Ms. Merkel said in an interview with the magazine Der Spiegel published Sept. 2, illustrating her newly critical attitu... Link to the full article to read more