Opel Reactions

Austria's Die Presse from Vienna noted that the response from Germany's political leaders ranged from "huffy to hopping mad", but what actually happened, the paper asks? "GM had the gall to make the decision that was best for the company," the paper writes.

"After months of hemming and hawing, the Americans are only partly to blame," the paper says. "The GM decision was only made possible after the European Commission forced Germany in October to offer any Opel suitor the same financial conditions as Magna. For the German government, the whole rescue maneuver was a complete waste of effort."

Like Austria, Spain is also a country that stands to lose jobs in the wake of an Opel restructuring. Madrid's El Pais thinks that General Motors "must provide a convincing explanation for its radical change of mind."

But, the paper notes, "the German government and Opel's works council also owe us a justification why they are so hostile toward GM. The US company understands the auto business and has the experience -- something that cannot necessarily be said for Magna and [its Russian partner] Sberbank."

Russia also stands to lose important Opel technology for its car industry following GM's decision, but the Moscow daily Komsomolskaya Pravda greeted the move with a shot of sarcasm.

"Oopps! They didn't give us Opel," the paper writes. "The situation recalls the old Russian fairy tale of the grandfather and his cow. In faraway Germany, Opel was a millstone for GM, but as soon as the new investor figured out how it could make the company profitable, GM thought maybe it could use this cow itself."

Under the headline "Detroit ex machina", Britain's Financial Times argues that GM's change of heart is good for the European car industry. "General Motors, a dinosaur only a year ago, has emerged Phoenix-like from the ashes of bankruptcy," the paper writes. "Continued GM ownership has benefits," the paper says, because its "recent domestic transformation gives credibility to its plans for shrinking Opel/Vauxhall. Moreover, conditions on its bankruptcy financing prohibit it from subsidizing loss-making operations overseas." "GM is not bluffing," the paper notes, "it must turn Opel around."

The Dutch daily de Volkskrant provides a sober assessment of the circumstances, pointing out that "it was clear from the beginning that GM really didn't want to get rid of Opel." "After all," the paper says, "German leaders are not blind to the realities: Opel factories will be closed one way or the other, regardless of whether Magna or GM are the majority owners."

Not surprisingly, the news has also been very sobering for German newspapers. The Berlin-based Tagesspiegel didn't mince words, calling it "an unprecedented effrontery, a disaster, a blow to US-German relations." The paper fumed that it was "worse than the worst times under George Bush junior and Gerhard Schroeder. And so inexplicable that it triggers three feelings: pity, sorrow and rage."

The Stuttgarter Nachrichten comments with a hint of resignation. Opel, it writes, "will certainly have to shrink. It will be painful and many jobs will be lost. But, our policymakers could not have prevented it, no matter how many billions in taxpayer's money are spent."

Cologne's Rundschau daily calls it "an embarrassing lesson" for Germany's leaders. The paper said it hopes that the state will avoid becoming bogged down with struggling companies in the future. "If GM knocks on the door in Berlin asking for state aid, the answer can only be a clear and resounding no", it says emphatically. "If General Motors needs Opel so urgently for its own strategic restructuring, as it claims, then its European subsidiary ought to be worth the billions needed to get it back on its feet," the paper concludes.

gb/dpa/AFP

Editor: Trinity Hartman