[Nick W.]

Italisn Government has started to push the point with the aviation industry. Although there are numerous other carriers in Italy, Alitalia is arguable the figurehead of their airline industry, hence they would not want to see them go.

BRDO, Slovenia, April 5 (Reuters) - The Italian government urged Alitalia's unions to signal within the next two days that they are willing to soften their line with Air France-KLM, after the collapse in talks to buy the ailing Italian airline.
The Franco-Dutch carrier walked out of negotiations with Alitalia's unions to buy the state's 49.9 stake in Italy's largest airline, saying requests by labour leaders were unacceptable.
"My appeal (to unions) is to do something new today, or tomorrow at the latest," Economy Minister Tommaso Padoa-Schioppa told a reporters in Solovenia, after a meeting of the European Union finance ministers.
Air France-KLM's board meets on Monday, and the Italian government said it hoped the Franco-Dutch carrier would not completely write off the takeover of Alitalia, which the officials believe offer the airline its best chance of survival.
"I hope Air France-KLM won't shut the door for good," Enrico Letta, a senior adviser to Prime Minister Romano Prodi, told reporters in the northern Italian lakeside town of Cernobbio.
"And this of course hinges on the unions showing a responsible attitude."
JOB CUTS PLANNED
Air France-KLM planned to cut 2,100 jobs at Alitalia with more redundancies at its ground service unit.
Alitalia's board is due to decide on April 8 whether to ask for protection from creditors, with the government scrambling to keep it flying despite a haemhorrage of about 1 million euros ($1.57 million) a day.
Once a proud symbol of Italy's post-war economic boom, Alitalia has been felled by tough competition, soaring fuel prices and frequent labour strikes. It has posted a profit only four times in the past 15 years.
Still, plans to privatise the airline have stirred nationalist sentiment just ahead of April 13-14 general elections, and turned Alitalia into a top campaign issue.
Opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi, tipped to become Italy's next prime minister, has appealed to Italian businessmen to come forward and save Alitalia from French control.
But Berlusconi's future finance minister if elected, Giulio Tremonti, seemed to leave an opening for Air France-KLM when speaking to reporters on Saturday.
"Why not?", Tremonti told reporters in Cernobbio. "If it preserves the identity, strength and value of Alitalia."
Confusing matters, Italian media reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources, that one possibility for Alitalia could be a bidding consortium including Germany's Lufthansa and U.S. private equity firm Texas Pacific Group.
AGI news agency said the bidders may include Alitalia's closest domestic rival, Air One.
A senior labour leader, Raffaele Bonanni of the Cisl union, had been quoted on Friday suggesting that unions would favour a takeover by Lufthansa.
A Lufthansa spokesman said there was "no news" since the airline most recently denied it planned to bid for Alitalia on Thursday. It was not immediately possible to reach officials at Texas Pacific Group or Air One. (Additional reporting by Valentina Za in Cernobbio and Georgina Prodhan in Paris; Writing by Phil Stewart and Valentina Za)