Letter From Italy
Diacono, Mario
"FASctsM RETURNS in Europe; generals in France, bishops in Italy." So, a few days before May 25, the radical and anti-clerical weekly L'Espresso summarized the mood which characterized the...
...But a new fact of Italian politics is precisely that the Socialist party, after the 20th Congress of the USSR and especially after the events of Budapest, has gradually become independent of the Communist party...
...They failed to give the majority party the number of votes it wanted to free it of dependence on other parliamentary groups...
...While the middle class then feared an experiment to the left, this time they were afraid of an adventure to the right...
...If the Christian Democrats had the strength to free itself from the attraction of the right, which does not seem very likely now, an alliance between Radical intellectuals and political Socialists could effect a decisive turn in Italian politics...
...Clearly, however, the Italian Socialist party, along with that of the Social Democrats, has entered a new phase, out of which it is still possible that there will arise a single Socialist party which will no longer seem to the middle classes to be afraid of itself, and which could pave the way for that reform of the structure of the State which must take place in order to lift Italian society out of its immobility...
...So, a few days before May 25, the radical and anti-clerical weekly L'Espresso summarized the mood which characterized the last week of the election campaign...
...the Communists and Socialists together had 1,300,000 more votes and 6 more seats than in 1953...
...One fact, however, makes this election different from that of 1948, so nostalgically remembered by the Christian Democrats...
...IN ORDER to maintain an equal distance between the left and the right, the Christian Democrats have for many years pursued an "immobilistic" line, a policy which increasingly tended to postpone, rather than face, the solution of the most important problems—agrarian reform, teachers' salaries, the relationship between private and government enterprises, the part played by the Church in the internal affairs of the government...
...In each particular case the Christian Democratic party had to try to find the parliamentary groups it needed to support its particular policy—groups which were often in disagreement with each other...
...It is true that a part of Pietro Nenni's party is not convinced of the desirability of an autonomous Socialist policy, one having full liberty of action in respect to the Communists, yet not falling into the state of impotence often shown by the Italian as well as the French Social Democrats...
...When it did not find these groups, it simply put the problems aside...
...This is, in effect, a situation analogous to that of 1948...
...The smaller groups, the Liberal party, the Radical Republican party, and the Social Democratic party, which had based their election campaign on particular ideas (themes) , were practically ignored by most of the voters, even though in Parliament they hold a nucleus of 45 seats with which they could be the decisive factor in forming a government if they had a united political platform...
...at first these were the Republicans, the Liberals, and the Democratic Socialists, later only the Liberals and the Democratic Socialists, and finally, by benevolent abstention, the Monarchists and Socialists...
...ment on the one hand and the threat of Civil War on the other, has led many voters of the right—more than half a million—to quiet their consciences by voting for the party of the bishops and the cautious middle class...
...At last the party secretary, Fanfani, declared that his party could not carry through all the legislation necessary to establish a climate of reform in the country, because it lacked a stable majority in Parliament on which it could base its reform program...
...and the middle class agreed with him...
...On April 18th of that year the Christian Democrats, exploiting the fear of a Communist regime, were able to obtain an absolute majority of seats in Parliament...
...It is, as a matter of fact, this group rather than the Socialists that the large number of intellectuals who left the Communist party in 1956 and 1957 joined...
...generals in France, bishops in Italy...
...THE CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS are determined not to collaborate with the largest Socialist party, arguing that it is still tied to the Communist party...
...By the election of May 25, the Italians showed they feel more comfortable with large parties, that they are not interested in the individual political prob lems, but prefer to choose on general principle and then let the parties take care of the particular questions...
...Right now this immobility is fully affirmed by the vote of May 25, which firmly anchors the largest Italian party to the political right...
...The Christian Democratic party did need the support of other political groups in order to govern...
...In the following elections on June 7, 1953, the people balked at exchanging a fascist regime for a clerical one within a few years' time...
...But his argument merely tries to conceal the fact that the "solutions" were based on compromises reached within the party headquarters, solutions which did not take into account the wishes of the groups involved...
...Otherwise, there may have begun in Europe the end of the democratic experiment...
...The election results confirmed this fore cast...
...There was, therefore, a proportionate increase for the parties of the Left and of the Christian Democrats, along with a collapse of the parties of the Right...
...By increasing from 10 to 12 millions the votes cast for the Christian Demo crats, who have for the last ten years prac tically monopolized the government, the Italian middle class has shown it wants to live quietly and securely, all but giving the Catholic party carte blanche to carry on a cautiously conservative policy...
...This was in the Chamber of Deputies...
...The Christian Democrats gained 1,700,000 votes and 11 seats...
...On the other hand one can't expect much from the two Socialist parties...
...In the Senate, the Christian Democrats gained 10 seats and are now close to having an absolute majority...
...Progress Without Experiments" was Fanfani's election slogan...
...For one thing, their leaders lack the keenness of the intellectuals who spark the still tiny Radical Party, and who are almost the only ones in Italy capable of applying a political and moral conscience on a national level...
...the parties of the Right lost 600,000 votes and 21 seats...
...It is fairly certain that the French situation, with an extremely unstable Parlia...
...For the moment they are the spice of the Italian political writers, but they have shown no hold over the masses of the people...
...However, while the Social Democrats and Radical Republicans now tend toward a line which is clearly to the left, the Liberals tend toward the right, and the Christian Democrats will probably take advantage of this division...
Vol. 5 • July 1958 • No. 3
