Merkel: Opel Decision Needed "Urgently"

After the decision regarding the future owner of GM's Opel was not taken, as expected, last week, German politicians stepped in and criticized both GM and the US which, in their opinion, now hold "responsibility for finding a way past GM's leadership weakness and helping us finally to reach a sustainable decision."

Chancellor Angela Merkel followed the same path as her colleagues in an interview with German ZDF television.

"I regret that a final decision wasn't made, but I hope it will happen soon, because both for the workers and the economic situation at Opel, we urgently need a decision," she said in the interview with German ZDF television, quoted by Reuters.

"The conflict of interest could be that we think Magna has made a very good offer ... which makes GM a minority shareholder in the whole set-up, and there may be voices at GM ... who'd prefer that this minority shareholding wasn't so marked."

As was made clear by now, Germany backs the deal proposed by Canadian manufacturer Magna, while GM favors a late entry in the bidding, Belgian holding RHJ. Yet, a possible new outcome surfaced, hinting that GM may also be considering rejecting both bids and continuing to operate Opel as a wholly owned subsidiary. Now, hope remains that regardless of the decision, it will be made sometimes this week. According to some sources, Magna is still the favorite bidder, despite the RHJ setback.

"Now I hope we'll make progress next week," Merkel continued. "I think we've moved things along well ... and that we're not far from the end, and hopefully we'll be at the end soon."