Amid the renewed insolvency of the Galeria department store chain, The Left party is demanding a protective shield for the employees. Party leader Ines Schwerdtner told the news portal T-Online that those responsible must finally present a sustainable concept that secures jobs and gives the stores a future. She warned that further staff reductions and the gradual decline of the stores do not constitute a restructuring plan, but rather a path towards the next crisis.
Schwerdtner added that the repeated insolvency is a devastating blow for the 12,000 employees. Many of them have fought for years to keep their jobs, having foregone compensation and endured one restructuring after another. They should not now be the ones left to pay for the crisis. According to Schwerdtner, merely giving a blank check to Bernd Beetz and the US investment firm NRDC is unacceptable. “First, a protective shield for the employees is needed, not for the owners,” she stressed. She further criticized the current corporate dynamic, stating that no one can be convinced that profits are privatized while employees absorb losses and the state is expected to step in. This game, she insisted, needed to end.
The struggling department store chain Galeria has requested the opening of insolvency proceedings at the Düsseldorf District Court. The company has communicated that operations in its 83 stores will continue for the time being. This mark constitutes the fourth insolvency application within six years-following events in 2020, 2022, and 2024. Despite attracting hundreds of millions of euros in state aid, numerous stores have been closed due to the previous proceedings. Since the summer of 2024, Galeria has belonged to the US investment firm NRDC and a holding company associated with entrepreneur Bernd Beetz.
