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Germans against offering aid to GM-owned Opel

After last week’s shock decision by General Motors to hold onto Opel rather than selling it to the Canadian company Magna, a new poll shows that a clear majority of Germans against offering aid to the company if it asks for state aid.

Published: 8 November 2009 11:16 CET

Germans against offering aid to GM-owned Opel

Photo: DPA

If General Motors asks the German government to offer loan guarantees to finance its planned €3 billion overhaul of the iconic carmaker, 66 percent of respondents to the poll, sponsored by the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, said they were against such aid. Just 28 percent said they favoured assistance.

GM is highly likely to ask Germany, as well as other European countries where Opel facilities are located, to help pay for the company’s reinvention, though the political winds in Germany in particular are blowing against it.

When news of GM’s decision broke last week, the newly sworn-in Economy Minister Rainer Brüderle said the move was “totally unacceptable” and has since said he is sceptical that Germany will offer additional assistance.

Opel is currently operating in a trusteeship set up by the German government in spring to help facilitate a quick sale to another company. The government also extended a €1.5 billion line of credit to keep the company solvent through the process.

Brüderle and many other German politicians have demanded that GM repay the credit – initially due to be repaid by the end of November – immediately now that it has decided to hold onto Opel.

GM’s restructuring plans are said to be similar to the one put forward by Magna and will entail approximately 10,000 layoffs throughout Europe out of a workforce of approximately 50,000. Unlike the Magna plan, which to satisfy the German government proposed closing none of Opel’s German facilities, GM is thought to plan the closure of at least one German site.

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Germany, Czech Republic accuse Russia of cyberattacks

The accusations come at a time of strained relations between Moscow and the West following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine and the European Union’s support for Kyiv.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said a newly concluded government investigation found that a cyberattack targeting members of the Social Democratic Party had been carried out by a group known as APT28.

APT28 “is steered by the military intelligence service of Russia”, Baerbock told reporters during a visit to Australia.

“In other words, it was a state-sponsored Russian cyberattack on Germany and this is absolutely intolerable and unacceptable and will have consequences.”

APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, has been accused of dozens of cyberattacks in countries around the world. Russia denies being behind such actions.

The hacking attack on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s SPD party was made public last year. Hackers exploited a previously unknown vulnerability in Microsoft Outlook to compromise e-mail accounts, according to Berlin.

Berlin on Friday summoned the acting charge d’affaires of the Russian embassy over the incident.

The Russian embassy in Germany said its envoy “categorically rejected the accusations that Russian state structures were involved in the given incident… as unsubstantiated and groundless”.

Arms, aerospace targeted: Berlin

German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said the cyber campaign was orchestrated by Russia’s military intelligence service GRU and began in 2022. It also targeted German companies in the armaments and aerospace sectors, she said.

Such cyberattacks are “a threat to our democracy, national security and our free societies”, she told a joint news conference in Prague with her Czech counterpart Vit Rakusan.

“We are calling on Russia again to stop these activities,” Faeser added.

Czech government officials said some of its state institutions had also been the target of cyberattacks blamed on APT28, again by exploiting a weakness in Microsoft Outlook in 2023.

Czech Interior Minister Rakusan said his country’s infrastructure had recently experienced “higher dozens” of such attacks.

“The Czech Republic is a target. In the long term, it has been perceived by the Russian Federation as an enemy state,” he told reporters.

EU, NATO condemnation

The German and Czech findings triggered strong condemnation from the European Union.

“The malicious cyber campaign shows Russia’s continuous pattern of irresponsible behaviour in cyberspace, by targeting democratic institutions, government entities and critical infrastructure providers across the European Union and beyond,” EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said.

The EU would “make use of the full spectrum of measures to prevent, deter and respond to Russia’s malicious behaviour in cyberspace”, he added.

State institutions, agencies and entities in other member states including in Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia and Sweden had been targeted by APT28 in the past, the statement added.

The latest accusations come a day after NATO expressed “deep concern” over Russia’s “hybrid actions” including disinformation, sabotage and cyber interference.

The row also comes as millions of Europeans prepare to go to the polls for the European Parliament elections in June, and concerns about foreign meddling are running high.

Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky told AFP that “pointing a finger publicly at a specific attacker is an important tool to protect national interests”.

One of the most high-profile incidents so far blamed on Fancy Bear was a cyberattack in 2015 that paralysed the computer network of the German lower house of parliament, the Bundestag. It forced the entire institution offline for days while it was fixed.

In 2020, the EU imposed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the APT28 group over the incident.

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