BERLIN, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- A significant majority of Germans want their government to toughen its stance towards the country's automotive industry, a poll published Wednesday by Die Welt newspaper found.
A total of 72.8 percent of respondents surveyed said the government granted carmakers too much leeway when it came to air pollution.
Inhabitants of densely-populated urban areas (80.6 percent) in particular favored a stricter approach by the authorities. Nonetheless, support for government intervention also remained high in sparsely-populated rural areas at 70.8 percent.
Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt has been heavily criticized for his department's "excessive comradery" with German carmakers.
German media reported last week that the Federal Motor Transport Authority (Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt, KBA), a sub-department of Dobrindt's ministry, had censored an investigatory report into the emissions cheating practices of Porsche diesel vehicles following an intervention by its parent company Volkswagen AG.
Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks called for a re-organization of the KBA in response to the revelations. On Tuesday, Dobrindt insisted that claims that his department had been involved in a cover-up were "simply wrong."
On Wednesday, German officials from federal and state levels of government will hold a "diesel summit" with automotive industry representatives to discuss lowering nitrogen oxide pollution in the wake of the developing "dieselgate" and "cartel" scandals.
A draft declaration for the summit suggests that carmakers will be spared having to conduct expensive retrofitting of their diesel motors in the short term but must commit to installing software updates to lower nitrogen oxide emissions.
The "National Forum Diesel", as the summit is officially called, is chaired by the transport and environment ministries. Chief executive officers of the automotive firms Volkswagen, Audi, Porsche, BMW, Ford and Opel, amongst others, will be in attendance.
