A week-long management crisis at Europe's biggest carmaker Volkswagen ended Friday with the German-based group's powerful board chairman, Ferdinand Piech, having suffered a major setback, dpa reported. Piech, who turned 78 on Friday, had sparked a power struggle in the company after he indicated he lacked confidence in VW chief executive Martin Winterkorn, who was expected to succeed Piech once he stepped down as chairman of the 20-member advisory board. But a committee of the carmaker's senior management rallied behind Winterkorn at a crisis meeting in the Austrian town of Salzburg, proposing to extend his contract, which had been due to expire next year. The steering committee "places great value" on the 67-year-old Winterkorn in his role as VW chief executive officer and he has its "unqualified support," the committee said in a statement released on Friday. -- SPA 22:22 LOCAL TIME 19:22 GMT تغريد
