Opel’s works Council Chairman Klaus Franz has confirmed the Italian carmakers interest. He had also stated that the way has been cleared for signing the letter of intent. With the signing, the Italian carmakers would get the majority stake in Fiat.

Though the GM officials in Detroit and government officials in Germany are known to back Fiat’s plans to takeover, Officials in Opel seem to be against such a move. It is rumored that they support a partnership with Magna International. Earlier Opel had held talks with Magna international for a partnership. But the talks between Opel and

Magna seem to have ended with the surprise move of Fiat.

Franz has said that he would try everything to block Fiat’s move to take stakes in Opel. He noted that the take over would lead to job losses and shut down of the factory in Germany as a result of overlaps in their product line-ups. In defence to his opposition to the take over, Franz said that Fiat, which was already in deep debt, would only face financial drain once the company takes over them.

The Opel group had recently appealed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel for a financial package for coming out of the situation.