Having never really recovered from the defeat of their last Prime Minister Romano Prodi, the left-of-centre opposition here has been disunited and ineffective.

BBC: Defiant Berlusconi calm amid storm

But there is little in Mr Voronin's economic programme to suggest that a reunited Moldova would live any better than a disunited one.

ECONOMIST: Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova

With the two other union bodies falling into line with the government and the centre-left a disunited rabble, Mr Cofferati has become the strongest voice opposing government policy.

ECONOMIST: Italian labour law and politics

But the beleaguered Jews were disunited too: secular, socialist, non-Zionist Jews like him, with ardent Zionists and communists, all bickering over tactics at the edge of the abyss.

ECONOMIST: Marek Edelman