Fiat and Chrysler could be merged within two or three years into a single company with its headquarters in the US, Fiat boss Sergio Marchionne said in remarks which upset Italians yesterday.

His comments in San Francisco quoted by Italy’s Corriere della Sera prompted the mayor of Turin, Fiat’s birthplace, to demand “immediate clarification”.

“It’s clear that an international group can have several offices but it would be different if the headquarters were in the US,” Sergio Chiamparino said.

A number of leading politicians also expressed indignation, and ANSA news agency said talks were planned this week between Marchionne and Economic Development Minister Paolo Romani.

“In the next two or three years we will be able to see a single entity. It could be based here in the US,” Corriere della Sera quoted Marchionne as saying.

“We’ll have to integrate the companies first, though, and then look at the management,” he added.

In October, Marchionne ignited controversy on saying “Fiat would be better off if it eliminated Italy.”

Trade unions and politicians accused him of “blackmail” in pushing through a tough deal on working conditions at Fiat’s flagship Mirafiori plant in Turin to save the factory from closure.

Marchionne had given the workers the stark choice of losing their jobs or accepting more overtime, fewer breaks and shift work for up to 24 hours at a time, promising investment of one billion euros ($1.3 billion) in Mirafiori in return.

Fiat, an acronym for Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, was founded in 1899 and has 188 factories around the world and a global workforce of 190,000.

It employs more than 80,000 people in Italy, making it the country’s largest private sector employer, but Marchionne says Fiat workers in places like Poland are far more productive.