Apparently, money is greener in Italy. The nation’s airline, Alitalia, is searching for a bidder to help it out of financial straits – so long as it’s Italian. Being French, Air France-KLM was hounded to drop its bid for the air carrier, which, late yesterday, it finally did. One of the most strident opponents of the deal, Italian Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi, is now on the hook after claiming a passel of Italian investors were fiending to pour capital into the ailing airline. So how come now we’re only hearing crickets?

Air France-KLM SA has definitively yanked its offer for Alitalia SpA off the table, leaving the struggling Italian flagship carrier with few options and raising the stakes for Prime Minister-elect Silvio Berlusconi to come up with an emergency rescue plan.

The Franco-Dutch carrier announced Monday in a news release that the offer it had made for Alitalia "was no longer valid."

The terse statement calls the bluff of the two groups that had been most vociferously opposed to a deal: Alitalia's combative unions and Mr. Berlusconi's center-right political alliance.

Though Air France-KLM had said earlier this month that it was suspending its offer after Alitalia's unions had increased their demands, many had expected the talks to resume after Italy's elections, which concluded with a victory for Mr. Berlusconi.

But with no suitor in sight, and Alitalia's cash reserves dwindling, it is unclear how the airline will be able to continue to fund its operations for the foreseeable future. The company has warned repeatedly that if it doesn't conclude a merger or raise new capital soon, it will run out of cash within a few months.

Though Mr. Berlusconi has yet to formally take the reins of power and form a government, it is now up to him to quickly patch together a solution.

Alitalia employs 18,000 people between its flight and ground operations. A collapse of the airline would be a political nightmare for Mr. Berlusconi, deal a blow to the country's transport system and harm important industries such as tourism.

Mr. Berlusconi's predecessor, center-left Prime Minister Romano Prodi, had been trying for more than a year to sell the government's 49.9% stake in Alitalia.

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