Payback may be a bitch, but she tastes sweet as honey

[fpb]

Couldn't have happened to a nicer bunch of guys. In order to make sure of their own Opel factories, Germany destroyed the Fiat bid for the Opel-Vauxhall company, broke European law with enormous state subsidies, and, even more inexcusably, brought in the Russians, who are not our friends and who have quite enough influence in our continent already. Now GM have decided that they are not selling at all, and that they will restructure their European operation instead; which, in the present circumstances of high Euro and low GB pound, means thousands of jobs going in Germany, and few or none in Britain. Germany really must learn some time that brute self-serving attitudes such as they showed throughout this saga are self-defeating. There is a place for honour in international relations, and if you show none, none will be shown to you.

Comments

[sevenorora.livejournal.com]

It also means that Opel Antwerp is surely doomed... :-/

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I am sorry to hear that, but would it have had a guaranteed future under a deal that was a clear German-Russian stitch-up at the expense of everyone else? Germany has been showing, lately, a great deal too much sympathy for Cap'n Putin and his gang, and this is a real danger to Europe. Bad enough that Obama seems bent on appeasing the sod.

[sevenorora.livejournal.com]

Not that I really know a lot about this (I've been way to busy with College to follow the everyday news in every detail :-|) but I know that both buyer-candidates wanted to get rid of Opel Antwerp, though Manga (Or whatever spelling :P) let the door open. So the Unions preferred them. The Belgian top of Opel Antwerp and the Unions were trying to convince Manga that the results were better than in some German factories.

It has been going on for quite some time now, so I feel for the workers.