Opel saga

General Motors confirmed the resignation of Forster in Detroit on Friday, adding that he has said he would support GM in its search for a new European head. Forster had previously shown public support for the sale of Opel to a joint bid from Canadian car parts maker Magna and Russian state bank Sberbank.

The Opel brand made huge progress under Forster, said GM chief Fritz Henderson, adding that no other changes were planned at the top-end of the company.

According to media reports, GM's man in charge of the company’s Asia interests, as well as its Chevrolet brand, Nick Reilly, is a contender for assuming Forster’s position.

Forster's resignation followed months of tense closed-door negotiations over the sale of Opel, and then a dramatic U-turn by GM in its plans to offload the struggling brand. Forster has since been critical of the decision to hold on to the European unit, believing the many months of negotiations over the sale had arrived at "a good restructuring plan."

"Now we run the risk that the sensible division of burden is unravelled again, and everything begins from scratch," he had told German daily Bild after the deal was scrapped.

German support

Meanwhile, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Neue Presse newspaper that the German government would act to secure the firm's 25,000 German workers whose fates have now once again been thrown into uncertainty.

"The state cannot wash its hands of its responsibility for people and the region. We will continue to look for help and solutions for those affected," Schaeuble told the Hanover daily.

He said that an estimate by his predecessor, Peer Steinbrueck, that if Opel was to become insolvent it would cost the German state three billion euros ($4.5 billion) was "not wrong."

Echoing demands already voiced by Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle and Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle, Schaeuble said that first of all, GM must repay a 1.5-billion-euro ($2.2 billion) bridge loan granted by the German government earlier this year.

The German government had heavily backed the joint Magna-Sberbank bid after the firms pledged to keep all four of Opel’s German plants open.

Workers' protest

Fearful that GM might now close German factories, Opel workers from all four of the carmaker's plants in the country staged protests on Thursday. Thousands of employees took to the streets in Opel's headquarters in Ruesselsheim, as well as in Bochum, Kaiserslautern and Eisenach.

GM is expected to seek aid from Germany and other European countries where Opel has plants, including in Spain, Belgium and Britain, where Vauxhall cars are made. The firm employs around 50,000 people across Europe.

Juergen Ruettgers, premier of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, home to Opel's Bochum plant, said on German public television on Friday that Germany should only offer aid if GM pledges to keep all plants open.

dfm/rb/AFP/AP
Editor: Andreas Illmer/Kyle James