Porsche is seeking to get the threshold lowered at the annual meeting, but the chances of that occurring are vanishingly remote: Lower Saxony would have to agree to it.

It’s likely that this is just a prelude to another tour through the courts, again challenging the validity of a parochial law created by Germany that is inconsistent with its obligations under European Union law.

In the meantime, however, efforts by Porsche to make aggressive use of Volkswagen to expand the Porsche empire and, not coincidentally, the Volkswagen brand name are likely to be delayed, if not thwarted. Lower Saxony’s ownership interest is, in effect, a clone for the labor unions that fought and lost the previous court battle with Porsche, a battle which had centered, in part, of that law’s guarantee of union membership on the VW board of directors.

In the meantime, VW will continue its efforts to drag Lower Saxony and its workforce into the 21st century, while the automakers from Japan and North America continue their efforts to exploit auto markets in China, India, and Russia and VW is hampered in its efforts to do the same.