During the first ten days of Mordini's rule, the old labels of annexationist, delayed-annexationist and conditional-annexationist were shuffled again, as gradually the true political bent of the new prodictatorship revealed itself. Depretis had come to grief over attempting to hasten the union of Sicily and the north, because he had here been pitting himself against the indifference of Garibaldi and the hostility of the radicals and autonomists. Mordini therefore decided to try and make an alliance between the radicals on the one hand, and a group of autonomists on the other, hoping to secure a common agreement for postponing and limiting the vote of union. The formation of this alliance, and its provision of greater strength to the cause of Garibaldi, was later to be Mordini's proud boast. But the more extreme members of the ‘party of action’ were at first only confused by it, for they were far more interested in creating unified central government than in qualifying this by the acquisition of local autonomy.

Those who thought of the new prodictator as just another of the radicals thus missed an important political distinction. There was, for instance, a certain coolness which now grew up between Mordini and Crispi. The former criticized both Crispi and Cordova for letting a mere rivalry of personalities obtrude to confound politics and weaken administration; and his remarks on this point came to the ears of Crispi, who took offence at them. Mordini then set himself deliberately to associate with the group of people who put Sicily first, and who resented the action of both Crispi and Cordova to superimpose either national or Piedmontese interests upon them.