Troubled shipyard sharply criticizes minister
The turmoil surrounding FSG Nobiskrug, which includes two shipyards in Flensburg and Rendsburg south of the Danish-German border, reached new heights on Monday.
The owner of the shipyard, Lars Windhorst, publicly attacked the Danish Minister of Economic Affairs and Business of Schleswig-Holstein.
This was reported by Flensborg Avis.
Danish Claus Ruhe Madsen, who was appointed as a minister in Schleswig-Holstein in 2022 after three years as the Lord Mayor of Rostock, has on several occasions expressed that the best solution for the 150-year-old shipyard would be insolvency followed by new investors.
The 570 employees have long had to live with uncertainty and excessively late salary payments, and just recently they were even temporarily laid off for a short period.
Unions and politicians have previously demanded that the shipyard be sold or even nationalized, and Claus Ruhe Madsen has described Lars Windhorst's treatment of the employees as rude, stating that he had crossed a line.
However, on Monday, Lars Windhorst counterattacked, accusing Claus Ruhe Madsen of making things worse during an economically very difficult time for the shipyard.
- The Minister's public statements harm both me and the company and make it even more difficult to find the right solutions, Lars Windhorst wrote in an open letter, which has also been presented to the company's employees.
Meanwhile, Claus Ruhe Madsen has indicated that a foreign investor is interested in taking over the shipyard, and Lars Windhorst has therefore asked the minister for further details in the matter.
