Fiat’s Sergio Marchionne, thwarted in his efforts to build a big listed carmaker around GM’s Opel/Vauxhall in Europe and Chrysler, looks like one of the first collateral victims of GM’s impending bankruptcy.

Concerns about job losses appear to have influenced the German government’s decision to favour a deal with Magna

But the bigger long-term casualty could be the health of European carmaking after the failure of the first serious attempt – launched publicly last month by Fiat’s chief executive as a “marriage made in heaven” – to profit from the industry’s upheaval by reaping much-needed efficiencies through a big cross-border merger.