GERMANY AND Russia yesterday reacted furiously to General Motors’ (GM) surprise decision to keep Opel rather than sell it, throwing up fresh uncertainty about the future direction of one of Europe’s biggest carmakers.

The news that GM’s board had abandoned the sale of Opel/Vauxhall to Canada’s Magna and Russia’s Sberbank also led to a schism among the carmaker’s workers, with British employees hailing a “fantastic decision” while Germans said they would start warning strikes today in protest.

Jürgen Rüttgers, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia state, where GM proposes closing a factory, said: “General Motors’ behaviour shows the ugly face of turbo-capitalism.”

GM’s decision pitches the Detroit-based company into a new confrontation with the German government over Opel.

At the heart of the controversy is whether Berlin would allow Opel to go bankrupt or step in to support GM financially. GM said yesterday it would need about €3 billion in financing to restructure Opel and it would ask European governments for money. But Berlin, which was offering Magna €4.5 billion in state aid, is asking GM to pay back a €1.5 billion loan it gave to the US carmaker.

“The behaviour of General Motors towards Germany is totally unacceptable,” said Germany’s new economics minister, Rainer Brüderle. – (Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009)