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I am surprised it went south so quickly, but not that it went south.
When I looked at the statements attributed to the French and Italian governments (basically 'no pain in our patch'), they were so incompatible that either there was no point in consummating the merger, or one would have to back down.
It is possible that this is a temporary separation, to allow each to say, 'we tried', close a few plants, and hey presto the big pain has been inflicted and the way is now clear to reopen the talks because no big closures are envisaged.
However both have no declared that they are in play, and maybe a third party will appear and the water will get even muddier!
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