Fiat has continued to signal its intent that it will not deviate from shutting Termini Imerese with Luca di Montezemolo applying the pressure by stating yesterday that the carmaker hasn't received "one euro" in state aid since he became Group Chairman nearly six years ago. Fiat also indicated at a meeting on the plant's future yesterday that half the workforce are eligible for early retirement.

"Since I have been at Fiat we have not received one euro from the state," Montezemolo, who became Chairman Fiat in May 2004, told the Ansa news agency. Fiat's rebuttal of claims that it has received state aid comes as unions pressure the government to link a continuation of the 'eco-incentives' due to run out next month, to the survival of Termini Imerese. Pope Benedict XVI also weighed into the debate last weekend, imploring government and business leaders to ensure the worker's jobs are safeguarded. Yesterday in a statement Fiat Group CEO Sergio Marchionne said he would "fully support" the ending of eco-incentives, while Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said that Fiat didn't seem to be interested in their continuation.

However secretary general of the Cisl labour union Raffaele Bonanni told Ansa yesterday that: "Fiat has always enjoyed state aid to set up production in Italy, and all Italians know it," while Roberto Calderoli, the government minister responsible for legislative simplification, said Fiat was "a company that our fathers considered a state company precisely because of the state intervention it received over the years," Ansa reported. Later Montezemolo clarified his comments, saying that government funding "are aids to consumption and not money given to companies."

Last week the government said it had received seven expressions of interest in Termini Imerese, and yesterday a second meeting on the Sicilian plant's future was held in Rome. Fiat, which says it loses 1,000 euros per car built at Termini Imerese due to the island location and lack of an integrated local supplier base, has said it would be prepared give the plant away to an interested party with a viable plan. "I’ve heard all sorts of proposals, from the Chinese buying the plant, to turning Termini into an Ikea store,” Raffaele Lombardo, head of the regional government in Sicily, told AFP yesterday, adding: "We’re not giving up on Fiat continuing to make cars in Sicily, we hope the company changes its mind."

Fiat added further to the pressure yesterday by saying that 806 staff, half the workforce, would be eligible for early retirement. Meanwhile Fiat received support yesterday from Emma Marcegalia, the president of Italy's employers association, who was reported by AFP as saying that "there are no incentives that hold" for factories that are not profitable.