HAMBURG (dpa-AFX) - The Hamburg Parliament will decide on Wednesday (from 1.30 p.m.) on the controversial deal for the world's largest shipping company MSC to join the port logistics company HHLA. As the opposition from the CDU and the Left Party has already announced that it will refuse the second and final reading in the last session before the summer break, there will probably only be a first reading. The final decision will probably not be made until the first parliamentary session after the summer break. However, there is no doubt that the Bürgerschaft will approve the contract, which will run for at least 40 years, given the red-green two-thirds majority.

According to the parliament's rules of procedure, one fifth of the members present can object to a second reading in the same session. With a total of 25 MPs, the CDU and the Left Party hold just over a fifth of the seats and could therefore delay the decision until the next session of the parliament, which is scheduled to take place after the summer vacation on September 4.

Hamburg's red-green Senate wants to bring the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) on board in order to stabilize HHLA and container handling. The city is to hold 50.1 percent and MSC 49.9 percent of the company. To date, the city has owned around 70 percent. In return, the shipping company wants to increase its cargo volume at the HHLA terminals from 2025 onwards and increase it to one million standard containers per year by 2031, according to the draft law. It will also build a new German headquarters in HafenCity. MSC and the city also want to jointly increase HHLA's equity by 450 million euros, among other things.

There are considerable reservations about the deal. Port workers took to the streets several times, venting their anger in angry demonstrations and not even shying away from a wildcat strike. Works councils, the Verdi trade union and even experts warned of a "historic mistake" in expert hearings and in a public hearing of the Hamburg Parliament./klm/DP/he