German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out having the state take a direct stake in Opel to save the troubled car maker.
Merkel, in a public television interview aired yesterday, said taking a state in the company would "not be good news" for its employees.
"We do not have the intention" to take a direct stake in Opel, said the conservative chancellor, who is scheduled to visit an Opel factory in the western German town of Russelsheim on March 31.
Labour Minister Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat in Merkel's governing coalition, had evoked the possibility of the state getting a stake in Opel, a subsidiary of US automaker General Motors.
"We shouldn't be afraid of such a decision," he said in an interview published in yesterday's edition of Bild newspaper. But he added that it "should not be for the long-term."
His comments raised the stakes within the coalition, which includes Social Democrats and Merkel's Christian Democrats, six months before legislative elections.
Opel has said it needs the USD 4.5 billion dollars to avoid bankruptcy under a plan presented in late February, which also foresees the German car maker gaining a large degree of autonomy from Detroit-based GM. (AFP)
