SIR

Sir - You describe Mr Veltroni's opposition to the Berlusconi government as weak (a "phantom opposition") and strategically counterproductive ("the benefits [of dialogue] for the left are less evident [than those for Berlusconi]"). This is determined by the lack of long term perspective in your analysis of the Partito Democratico's aims. Veltroni defined his party's opposition on dialogue in order to mark a change with the Italian left's historically obstructionist and unproductive opposition of which the Italian electorate is tired and unsatisfied. The PD, a new party created less than a year before its first electoral test this spring, is a political subject in its infancy whose most important task is now to define its policy positions and thereby affirm itself in the electorate's perception as a governmentally viable new party ready to take office in five years. Veltroni's 'dialogic opposition', therefore, seeks to define the PD's political platform with respect to that of Mr Berlusconi on the most salient and substantial issues in the eyes of italian public opinion: the problem of collecting and handling refuse in Naples, opposing a law that defines irregular immigration as a crime as well as the militarisation of urban security. Recently PD senators also abandoned parliamentary discussions to oppose a law that serves Berlusconi's legal interests an was deemed unconstitutional in 2003 (Lodo Schifani). Indeed, this type of opposition "does not appear British at all". But that is because the British opposition party, unlike the PD, is not just a few months old, nor does it need to define its policy positions from scratch and comuncate them to the electorate. It makes more sense to compare Veltroni's opposition to Zapatero's "oposicion util", which was equally criticised as weak and ineffective but allowed the PSOE to emerge from a period of deep internal crisis and go on to win the elecciones generales in 2004. Italian voters - unlike this magazine - are tired of a destructive (and ultimately arithmetically useless) opposition that only seeks to "embarass the government" on issues such as Travaglio's journalistic style. The PD's parliamentary activity must not be brushed away as merely a "phantom opposition", rather it must be understood as the first baby step of a credible and governmentally viable reformist party.