Barack and Mario Are on a First-name Basis — So What?

This “news” is still circulating — spread, I suppose, by the prime minister’s entourage in an effort to strengthen his image as an esteemed world leader. It is no question that Obama has a high opinion of Monti. However, addressing him informally is compulsory in English because there is no formal second person.

It’s an old gag used by Italian leaders who pride themselves on this or that U.S. president calling them by their first name — today it’s Mario, yesterday it was Silvio (by George Bush) and so on. But even this is a hoax. Anyone with a modicum of familiarity with the etiquette and social mores of Americans knows that it is their habit to create an atmosphere of fake intimacy within the first five minutes of meeting someone. Even at a summit of bankers, just like at a convention of dentists or otolaryngologists that have never before met, they address each other by first names. It’s one of the rules that Italian leaders regularly misunderstand, confusing personal favor with standard friendliness.