Plot twist: Milan's name changes. It will be called Junior, like the beautiful GT 1300 which, renouncing the name “Giulia”, became the progenitor of a new generation of Alfa Romeo in 1966. Sensational news, which Jean-Philippe Learnato, CEO of Alfa Romeo, explained directly: “We are perfectly aware that this episode will remain engraved in the history of the Brand. It's a great responsibility but at the same time it's an exciting moment. The choice of the new name Junior is completely natural, being strongly linked to the history of the brand and having been among our favorites and among the public's favorites since the beginning. As a team we choose once again to make our passion available to the Brand, to give priority to the product and customers. We decide to change, even though we know that we are not obliged to do so, because we want to preserve the positive emotions that our products have always generated and avoid any type of controversy. The attention paid in recent days to our new sports compact is something unique, with an unprecedented number of accesses to the online configurator, which caused the website to crash for a few hours.”
Here is the reaction to the words – very harsh and never seen before – of the Minister of Business and Made in Italy Adolfo Urso who a few days ago slapped Stellantis, saying that the use of the name Milano, chosen by the brand to call the new compact sports car that has just been presented, is prohibited by law.
Aside from the fact that Urso could have woken up earlier (Alfa had unveiled the logo months ago) it must be said that the name Milan was chosen by the public with a survey to pay tribute to the city where everything originated in 1910. Not only that: the name Milan has been on the Alfa Romeo logo for years, not to mention that the world is full of cars with the names of cities where they are obviously not produced.
However, to avoid controversy, Alfa takes a step back, pointing out however that on the ex-Milano it was clearly written “Made in Poland” and that the name Milano complies with all legal requirements. “Cold blood and let's set off again – explains Learned – with the hope that there will be no tails of this controversy. Nobody forced me to change my name, but we wanted to do it to return to an atmosphere of serenity.” The problem is understanding whether it will be enough. Italy is the country of controversy and there is very little of a “climate of serenity” around.
#controversy #Alfa #Milano #FormulaPassion.it
