Correspondents' Correspondence Eurocommunism Divided
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
Eurocommunism Divided Rome—Another broadside, making it the third within a 30-day period, was fired at Eurocommunism earlier in mid-August. Once again the attack came not from Moscow but from...
...Most observers, moreover, believe that the situation is bound to further deteriorate...
...He termed the stand of Georges Marchais' party "sensational and elec-toralistic," distorted by "provincial chauvinism," opportunistic as well as "incongruous and absurd...
...In a brief but rather vicious communique published in Madrid, the Spanish Communist Party's (PCE) number two man and leading expert on Eurocommunism, Manuel Azcarate, denounced the French Communists (PCF) for stubbornly objecting to Spain's entry into the European Economic Community...
...He also accused the PFC of trying to turn the Community into a privileged club...
...The two previous episodes provide additional evidence of the widening cracks in the Eurocommunist structure...
...On July 1 the representatives of the Communist parties of the nine Common Market countries met in Luxembourg to shape policy for the first direct elections to the European Parliament, scheduled for June 1979...
...The French claim that an enlarged Common Market would be a catastrophe for their agriculture...
...The violence of Azcarate's language was a sharp departure from the customary rhetoric of Western Communists...
...Whatever Marchais' plans, one thing at least is clear...
...For they feel that the PCF's strategy is not merely a temporary tactical gambit, but a long-range plan...
...So far, the ever-prudent Enrico Berlinguer has refrained from engaging in the sort of diatribes that are undermining relations between the Spanish and French Communists...
...Once again the attack came not from Moscow but from within the movement itself, and once again the cause was deep differences on the united-Europe issue...
...The Italian Communist daily, L 'Unita, approved of the conference as a move that would spur European development...
...PCF's Human-ite, by contrast, accused the conferees of plotting to impose mass austerity, with the cost to be paid solely by the Continent's workers...
...And in an attempt to minimize the differences, PCI circles express confidence that in due time Marchais will soften his stand, which is attributed to "the usual French chauvinism...
...Marchais, they claim, intends to play the nationalistic card to overtake Francois Mitterand's Socialist Party, even if it means an alignment with the lunatic fringe of French conservatism...
...Marchais, in fact, wrote an article for the Gaullist magazine L'Appel, stating that the French Communists opposed any form of European aggregation and vowing that in the future Parliament it will strive to protect French interests alone...
...A potentially more serious conflict occurred in the middle of July, in the wake of the Bonn summit meeting of the leaders of the major Western industrial nations...
...No agreement was reached: French intransigence foiled the ambitious project of running a joint Communist ticket for the elections...
...To make matters worse, the PCE specifically praised the Italian Communist party for its Europeanist outlook and favorable attitude toward Spain's Common Market bid...
...In other words, Berlinguer Yes, Marchais No...
...The PCF's refusal to cooperate with other parties in its own nation—responsible for the abandonment of the Union of the Left in this year's elections—and its current attitude toward the future of Europe must please and reassure the Kremlin, which has all along viewed Eurocommunism with a mixture of contempt and fear.—Silvio F. Seni-gallia...
...He has seriously damaged the Eurocommunist initiative, intended to encourage the Western European parties to develop independently of the Soviet Union...
...The fact that the Italians have remained firm in their views on Europe and are trying to mediate PCE-PCF differences, however, cannot paper over the basic policy rift that has surfaced between the two parties...
Vol. 61 • September 1978 • No. 18
