By Lars Mucklejohn Italy’s Unicredit is facing stiff opposition from the German government amid speculation that it may launch a multibillion-euro takeover bid for Frankfurt-based Commerzbank. On 11 September, Unicredit announced that it had purchased a nine per cent stake in Commerzbank, Germany’s second-largest lender. It purchased half of the stake in the open market and the other half from the German government, which had unveiled plans the previous week to sell down its 16.5 per cent stake, originally acquired during the financial crisis. Unicredit’s move was widely seen as the first step…