Parties to suit all tastes

There's something for everyone in Italy's general election. The Interior Ministry's guide to the 180 symbols of parties for tomorrow's vote, a small book, is about as varied and colourful as the Italians themselves. They include donkeys, smiling bears, dolphins, seagulls, butterflies, griffins, cows, boars, owls, doves and eagles.

Most of the parties are small, regional groups aligned in one way or another with larger parties. Perhaps the most intriguing takes its name from the Holy Roman Empire, which ceased to exist nearly two centuries ago.

A number of parties, though, reflect the problems of the 21st century. One, United Small Businessmen and Artisans, uses a desktop adding machine as its symbol.

This being football-mad Italy, there is a Forza Roma ("Go Roma!") party, which takes its red and yellow colours from one of the capital's soccer teams. Not to be outdone, supporters of Roma's city rivals have set up an Avanti Lazio ("Forward Lazio!") party.

The declared aim of one party is tax reform that would allow Italians to "write off everything and everybody" from their tax returns.

There is an artist's palette of Green parties. There are Greens with a smiling sun, a sunflower and a carnation. There are Ecologist Greens and Federalist Greens. And, just to make sure no one is confused about just how green a Green party can be, one party calls itself the Green Greens.

But perhaps the most eloquent name chosen by a fringe party is made up of five letters: Basta ("Enough!").