Comments on: Socialist Group rebrands as ASDE, not to be confused with ASDA or ALDE

By: Igor

Igor — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 07:00:00 +0000

As a Pes activist and a PD member, I fill a bit ashamed by the clumsiness of this deal.
I don’t like the new name…probably something like Socialist and Democrats would be better.
But at least we’ve got a working name that can be fixed later.
Now, let’s find some working ideas…

By: Tommaso

Tommaso — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 19:24:58 +0000

Dear Bossito,
I find your comment a bit rude.
The PD is the heir of the biggest communist party of all Western Europe and the leftish component of the Democrazia Cristiana. It is a project that is the effort of the the best left people present in Italy nowadays. The future of the left parties across Europe is linked to the future of the left in Italy.
I think the administration costs involved should be the last problem when reforming a political movement.

By: Stephen SPILLANE

Stephen SPILLANE — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 12:18:06 +0000

I really should have copyrighted that ASDA thing!

By: Henning

Henning — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 15:04:13 +0000

From a branding point of view this is a disaster! No differentitaion, no identity, no product! How on earth are people expected to explain that ASDE is the parliamentary arm of the PES? This just makes no sense at all!

The term ‘socialist’ does more harm than it does good. It is a linguistic minefiled and I personally would much more prefer the term social democrat. It is ethymologically less abused.

But if such a “rebranding” happens you don;thave to worry about specific terms. What a nonsense!

By: bossito

bossito — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:15:36 +0000

This is trully stupid. How long do they think PD will last? What’s the average time of survival of center-left parties in Italy? So much trouble for this? Before they have time to change all the office logos, website, etc etc etc etc PD will be forgotten and replace by some Olive Coalition or Spaghetti Democratici… Total waste of time, money and identity.

Although I do agree that “socialist” doesn’t apply to the vast majority of the parties in PES. “Social-democrat” with be more correct. “Labour” could work fine as well. But I would definitly prefer “Progress Party”.

By: Tommaso

Tommaso — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 19:38:36 +0000

A new shape for the European is needed anyway. The collapse of the UK Labour and the French PS are telling the same story. The Italian PD is simply the excuse to start from a formal point of view this process.
If now the new name is not so nice it is not relevant. The important thing is that the European left has an urgent need of new ideas and contents.

By: Nosemonkey

Nosemonkey — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:06:10 +0000

I can’t help but look at “ASDE” and read it as “ARSE”.

Why the “E” on the end? Why not take another unnecessary letter from one of the other words? And why the superfluous “Alliance”? Why not just Socialists/Democrats – the SODs?

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:51:17 +0000

@Miller 2.0 – what particularly is rubbish? The line of my post overall? As far as I’m concerned the PES and its member parties have to share the responsibility for the election problems faced, although the PES’s hands have been tied by the member parties since the autumn when Zapatero and Socrates announced they were backing Barroso.

As for the word ‘socialist’ – does it cause tensions, make people think back and not forward? I don’t know… Would ‘European Social Democrats’ be more appropriate? I honestly don’t know.