HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - In view of the continuing protests against the planned acquisition of the world's largest shipping company MSC by the Hamburg port logistics company HHLA, the AfD parliamentary group has brought a referendum into play. "This decision must not just be made by political representatives less than a year before the end of the election period," explained Marco Schulz, spokesperson for public companies, on Friday. If almost half of an important part of the Port of Hamburg is to be placed in the hands of a private company for at least 40 years, the people must be consulted. AfD port expert Krzysztof Walczak emphasized: "The question of whether to chain HHLA and thus the Port of Hamburg to a single major Swiss shipping company is of such fundamental importance to us Hamburgers that the people should have the last word on this."

According to Hamburg's constitution, the city parliament can put a matter of fundamental and city-wide importance to a referendum at the proposal of the Senate or with its consent. To do so, it requires a two-thirds majority in parliament and must also set the date for the referendum by the same majority, which must be at least four months after the decision. If the referendum takes place outside of parliamentary or federal elections, it is accepted if it receives the majority of votes and at least one fifth of those eligible to vote agree - that would be more than 260,000.

MSC's entry into HHLA is highly controversial

The acquisition of a stake in Hamburger Hafen und Logistik AG (HHLA) by the Geneva-based Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) is highly controversial. At a public hearing on Thursday, at which every member of the public was able to speak, all speakers sharply criticized the planned deal. Among other things, they were concerned about jobs, co-determination rights and site security. The speakers included many port workers, works councils and trade unionists, as well as representatives of initiatives, district organizations and environmental associations. Prior to this, experts had already expressed considerable doubts about the deal in two expert hearings.

However, the budget committee approved the deal on Thursday evening with the votes of the red-green majority. The CDU, the Left Party and the AfD voted against. Now it is the turn of the Bürgerschaft as the last political body. According to the red-green Senate, it is to make a final decision on the deal at the last meeting before the summer break on July 10. Previously, the Committee for Public Enterprises and the Economic Committee had already waved through the red-green Senate's plan.

Senate wants to stabilize container handling in the port

The Senate wants to bring MSC on board at HHLA in order to stabilize container handling. The city and the company, which belongs to the Italian shipping family Aponte, are to run HHLA as a joint venture in future, with the city holding a majority of 50.1 percent. To date, the city has owned around 70 percent of HHLA, which is listed on the stock exchange.

In return, the world's largest shipping company MSC wants to build its German headquarters in Hamburg, increase the cargo volume in the port from 2025 and, according to the press release, increase it to one million standard containers (TEU) per year by 2031. MSC and the city also want to increase HHLA's equity by 450 million euros. The port has recently suffered setbacks. Last year, the handling of seaborne cargo fell by 4.7 percent compared to 2022 to 114.3 million tons - the lowest figure since 2009./klm/DP/ngu