Opel: Will the governmental rescue plan fail?

For Hendrik Hering, Economics Minister of Rheinland-Palatinate, the Opel problem is not an isolated case; every day precisely such government support is given to numerous small and mid-sized businesses. It was right to help Opel. Now it's GM's turn. The state has built a bridge that allows it to keep industrial competence in Germany, and not only at Opel but at numerous small and mid-sized subcontractors. Jörg Rolloch, European School of Management and Technology, Berlin, fears that a skilfully negotiating international enterprise can play off national governments against each other with rescue operations. The amount of subsidies can then determine which plants are kept running. The current crisis in particular shows the importance of European competition policies. For Helmut Becker, Institute for Economic Analysis and Communication, Munich, the so-called governmental rescue plan has failed in the case of Opel, which is a good thing because also in this case the social costs of artificially prolonging this company's life by means of tax money would be greater than the social benefit of a re-allocation of the workers. Willi Diez, University of Applied Economics and Environmental Science, Nürtingen-Geislingen, is of the opinion that GM's strategy change in retaining Opel as its subsidiary should not be regretted. The responsibility for the survival of Opel is now where it belongs - "with the management of the parent company and not in the hands of political decision-makers".