Silvio Berlusconi on Monday gave a barely concealed ultimatum to his coalition partners. After days of meetings, over proposed tax cuts, where he has met opposition from Alleanza Nazionale and UDC, Berlusconi, with as much rhetoric as he could muster (which of course was plenty), sent a letter, or as he put it a manifesto, to Il Foglio one of Italy’s national newspapers. “Either the programme [for government] is carried out to its full extent or the mission is finished and the choice goes back to the country”[1], said Berlusconi, apparently without arrogance or indeed a sense of giving up.

Now you would imagine that the threat of an early election would be joy to the ears of the left-wing opposition, and you’d be right. Indeed, they’ve been daring Berlusca to go to the polls, issuing a statement:”Either Silvo Berlusconi manages to govern or admits that he can’t and goes to a vote”[2].

The ruling government has been plagued by internal conflicts for a number of months now, and both European elections and recent by-elections have shown the left-wing oppostion to be in a strong position to defeat Berlusconi’s majority in any upcoming election, but, and it’s a big but, there’s still much evidence that the proposed coalition of the left has a lot of work to do before being able to present a credible alternative to the electorate.

And so we come on to the naming issue. It’s hard to describe the proposed coalition, because they’re still arguing over a name! For scarcely more than a month they’ve been referred to in the media as GAD or Grande Alleanza Democratica , after a meeting in October that set some of the ground rules for the alliance.

This week, debate has been ongoing about GAD as a name. Francesco Rutelli, leader of the Margherita party, dislikes it because it’s “indigestible. It sounds like it could be the name of the next Disney film”[3]. One could add that, appropriately enough, in english GAD stands for General Anxiety Disorder. It’s also the first name of one of Italy’s popular political analysts – Gad Lerner (incidentally one of Romano Prodi’s advisors), and finally it’s also the name of wholesale clothing producer from Naples.

Rutelli’s dislike for it has been mirrored by most of the other parties and significant members of the alliance, including both Prodi and Fassino. Well and good, so a decision was made to change the name to, first L’Alleanza, and then the marginally more snappy Alleanza.

Not such a bad name. It has a nice ring to it. Solid and robust even. That is until you consider that one of the ruling right-wing government parties is called Alleanza Nazionale. Cue sensible supporters of a left-wing coalition to cry out in unison, with a Humphrey Bogart inflection, “Of all the names in all of the world you had to walk into this one”!

It brings to mind the widespread practice in Vietnam of naming your restaurant identically to that of your neighbours, in the hope of stealing some customers based on their reputation. It’s hardly likely though that the newly named Alleanza have it in mind to confuse votes out of the ‘post-fascist’ Alleanza Nazionale support. Instead it’s a simple lack of vision or a compromise between bickering leaders. After all, there was a coalition, led by Prodi before, which won the election under the title Uniti nell’Ulivo, but perhaps that brings back bitter memories for all involved.

It seems that the leadership of the left are well aware that there needs to be a unified message and presentation to the public – let’s not call it spin-doctoring just yet – but that message remains weak. At a time when they could be scoring points left, right, and centre from the Government, instead Ignazio La Russa, effectively second in command of Alleanza Nazionale is seen laughing on TV, saying of the name change “we won them over”.

Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio of the Verdi (green) party, a part of this grand coalition, hardly hid his irritation with the naming issue: “We never looked upon the label GAD enthusiastically – he admits – but today the priority isn’t the name as such, but the program and the rules of the democratic alliance of the centre-left”[4].

At the end of the day the election, when it comes, will not be won with a name (though, as Forza Italia showed, if you have a good one, it helps). It will be won with a strong electoral message. Is that something that ‘Alleanza‘ can come up with? Time will tell.

We’ll leave you with the comment from a forum for the left, where, on the topic of the name change, someone wrote “Piu’ che il nome andrebbero cambiati gli uomini…” or “Rather than changing the name, the leaders should be changed…”

[1] “E