Scelba's Last Stand?:

...In his reply to Fanfani, Scelba vigorously defended his Government's record...

...The entire party executive took a similar stand and also resigned in a body...

...The coalition's left wing, the Republicans and Social Democrats, insisted that a defrosting would be contrary to the basic program of agrarian reform and land distribution and would play into the hands of the Communists...

...The most perilous leg of the trip was from the Premier's office in the Viminale Palace to the Rome airport...

...Other outstanding achievements were: settlement of the thorny Trieste dispute, followed by improved relations not only with Yugoslavia, but also with Greece and Turkey, and better ties with Great Britain...

...Luce, but of those who have sought to tie Scelba's hands for their own political aims...

...But the party's Political Secretary and virtual boss, Amintore Fanfani, sides with the left wing...

...On the strength of this minor episode, they drummed up some nonCommunist support for their demand that the MSI he outlawed...

...the crew, the coalition parties, even more surly and mutinous...

...Moreover, as far as foreign policy is concerned, Fanfani has never distinguished himself by his enthusiastic support of the long-sought Western alliance...

...In fact, the motion for delay passed by one vote...

...Their immediate purpose is to prevent his trip to America from developing into a personal triumph which would add again to his political stature...

...But right up until takeoff he was buffeted by squalls that have weakened the Government beyond hope of surviving much longer...

...Fanfani's long-range target is the Premiership...

...The Liberal party, which comprises the coalition's right wing and stresses laissez-faire, wanted the contracts unfrozen...

...In view of this background, it seems reasonable to ask: Why did the Montesi case suddenly come to the fore again on the eve of Scelba's scheduled trip to the United States...

...According to persistent rumors, new major policy proposals, tending toward closer relations between the Right and Left Socialists, will come up at the impending congresses of both parties...

...Scelba could still carry on without support from the Republicans' five Chamber Deputies...

...It was he who ordered the Carabinieri to draft a report on Montagna's disreputable past...

...The hazards to Scelba's navigation were political, not physical, but the threat of shipwreck was equally great...

...After much haggling, the Cabinet adopted a compromise proposal whereby landowners with cause (?) would be permitted to cancel contracts after giving three years' notice to the tenants, or after twelve years' notice without cause...

...Having failed to muster a Parliamentary majority as Premier in February 1954, he is determined to have another try...

...If Scelba's American visit does not fulfill their original intent of further strengthening and extending these relations, it will not be the fault of Scelba or Mrs...

...The mere fact that similar efforts in the past have always drawn a blank does not preclude Nenni's being tempted by a new offer...

...In such a combination, which would obviously exclude the Liberal party, Giuseppe Saragat's Social Democrats would occupy the center position between Nenni and the Christian Democrats...

...For one thing, Fanfani does not want the Premiership until after the Presidential elections...

...According to the prevailing rumor, he is trying to interest leftwing Socialist Pietro Nenni in the plums of office...

...It has pulled the country, and especially the antiCommunist forces, out of the defeatism that followed the June 1953 elections...

...Fanfani and his supporters, while they do not want the Government to fall until after the upcoming Presidential and Sicilian regional elections, are intent on reducing Scelba's prestige and limiting his mandate...

...In the spirit of the decision to postpone "clarification" until after Scelba's return from America, the Government announced that the thorny farm-contracts question, instead of being submitted to the Chamber for immediate debate as originally scheduled, would be referred back to committee for an additional two-month period...

...Even those groups which in the past followed the Red lead unquestioningly failed to respond this time...

...The various protest demonstrations were strangely listless...

...By Edmund Stevens ROME PREMIER Mario Scelba's trip to America may be recorded in history as one of the most precarious expeditions since Columbus set forth in the same direction...

...The Communists' only good propaganda peg was provided by a gang of youngsters who smashed the windows of their bookshop in party headquarters...

...The objectives behind these intricate moves appear to be twofold...

...But for this wedlock, the Nenni party might benefit from current Communist defections...

...Unlike a Liberal defection, the Republican gesture involved no immediate threat to the Government's life...

...Given the discord within the coalition on the farm-contracts issue, the Communists were hoping something similar would happen this time...

...It forced the resignation of Scelba's former Foreign Minister, Attilio Piccioni—leader of the party's right wing, onetime Vice Premier and Premier-designate, and father of the main suspect—and nearly compelled the Government to resign...

...It should be recalled in this connection that proposals for an "opening on the Left" which would admit Nenni to the Government coalition, provided he cut loose from the Communists, originated with Saragat after the June 1953 Parliamentary elections...

...Tension within the coalition, which had been building up for some time, suddenly erupted last month in a squabble over proposed legislation on farm contracts...

...The youths, described as members of the neo-Fascist MSI, also carried placards favoring the accords...

...Scelba's own name was dragged into the case, for Polito, who resigned when his link with Montagna came out, was the appointee and direct subordinate of Scelba, Minister of the Interior at the time of the crime...

...The Montesi case, with its tangy mixture of sex, vice and politics, has been a major factor in discrediting the Christian Democratic Old Guard, many of whom were somehow involved...

...investment in Italy would be to ease the restriction on private oil companies in the exploration and exploitation of Italy's newly-discovered petroleum resources, at the expense of the state monopoly...

...It is by no means clear how Fanfani hopes to produce a Parliamentary majority, assuming that the present four-power Center coalition passes into limbo with the Scelba Cabinet...

...He pointed out that there was no workable alternative to the present coalition in sight and urged that the major effort at clarification be put off until after his return from America...

...Though the question of confidence had not been posed, defeat of the motion would have plunged the Chamber into a violent debate which might well have disrupted the coalition...

...On the demand of the Communists, the Government move was put to a vote by secret ballot...

...This ratification crowned an excellent record in the field of foreign relations...

...Much as in those days, when he planned the Pella Cabinet's fall to clear the way for his first attempt, he is now preparing Scelba's overthrow...

...Saragat is rarely heard from lately, but he has had several long private conferences with Nenni...

...Mattei is afraid that Scelba will be influenced by American arguments that the best way to stimulate private U.S...

...A few hours after Fanfani and Scelba had come to an understanding on the "clarification" question, the notorious Montesi scandal suddenly hit the headlines again after many months of silence...

...This is partly out of deference to Enrico Mattei, powerful head of the Italian state petroleum monopoly and friend of Fanfani's friends...

...His demand on Scelba was probably part of a carefully planned tactic after the manner of his famous fellow-Tuscan, Nicolo Machiavelli...

...Fanfani, one of Italy's shrewdest political operators, knows this full well...

...Compared with what may soon emerge, the Scelba Government has much to commend it...

...In the past, de Gasperi was twice outvoted when his own partisans bolted him under the cloak of secrecy...

...In the long struggle between private and state enterprise in Italy, Fanfani stands closer to those who favor Government ownership...

...The latter have been making a vigorous bid for the support of the poverty-stricken Southern peasantry...

...The present lack of clarity in these relations, he asserted, was undermining the Government's authority...

...The next and most formidable attack on the Scelba Cabinet came from very close to home...

...The Rome prosecutor, having waded through volumes of evidence and testimony, formally requested the indictment of Piero Piccioni for manslaughter...

...It argued that extending the freeze indefinitely amounted to expropriation, as the landowners were deprived of their property rights...

...by demonstrating that he is a political lame duck with no real tenure or authority...

...Their action was promptly disavowed by Liberal party Secretary Malagodi, who resigned...

...he does not wish to serve under President Luigi Einaudi, whom he largely blames for his previous failure...

...An emergency meeting of the National Council of the Liberal party was summoned to consider the situation, and for a moment it looked as if the Liberals might withdraw from the coalition and topple the Government...

...He also sought an indictment against the bogus Marquis Ugo Montagna and his close friend, former Police Chief Saverio Polito, for aiding and abetting in concealing the facts and hushing up the investigation...

...In the end, Fanfani appeared to concede Scelba's point...

...Political observers suggest that they did so with Fanfani's knowledge and approval, not in order to defeat Scelba, but to cut his margin to the bone...

...But he is proceeding very cautiously and methodically...

...Nevertheless, this further weakened the coalition's already shaky props...

...If nothing else, Nenni's support would prevent such a government from taking a strong anti-Communist line...

...The Christian Democrats, who make up the coalition's preponderant central bulk, are divided on the farm-contract question as they are on practically every issue...

...Once he emplaned, Scelba was reasonably safe...

...Of late, the left-wing Socialists have felt more and more chafed and confined by their unityof-action pact with the Communists...

...Ambassador Clare Booth Luce, Italo-American relations attained a new level of excellence, culminating in the Premier's present trip...

...He may be right, for Einaudi has little love for Fanfani, whom he rates an ambitious demagogue...

...They also want to keep Scelba from making important commitments in the U.S...

...The count indicated that upwards of thirty of Scelba's party colleagues must have voted against him...

...Thanks to the joint efforts of Scelba and U.S...

...One week later, the Government was attacked on the same issue by the Republicans...

...Having waited this long, the prosecutor might easily have delayed the case until after Scelba's return—unless, of course, someone influential wanted the public's memory refreshed at this very time...

...At the time, ratification of the Paris accords was still pending in the Senate, so the three Liberal Cabinet members, including Foreign Minister Gaetano Martino, reluctantly swallowed their laissez-faire...

...The Communists could hardly have hoped for a better tieup had they planned it that way themselves...

...As the episode with the Liberals proved, the present rickety combination can be held together only so long as clarification is avoided and certain fundamental differences are glossed over or cloaked in ambiguity and general compromises...

...The most vivid evidence of Communist decline was the fiasco of their recent efforts to whip up popular opposition to the Paris accords...

...Somehow differences were patched up, mainly through the efforts of Martino, who pleaded the priority of foreign policy...

...Despite this publicity, a Communist-sponsored strike of Rome transport and utility workers, called to protest this "Fascist outrage," fizzled completely when even the members of the Red CGIL ignored the strike call...

...This report, which became one of the major documents of the case, precipitated the resignation of Police Chief Polito...

...As Minister of the Interior in the Pella Cabinet, Fanfani played a key part in bringing the Montesi case into the limelight...

...Not only was the forward march of Communism halted...

...The Republicans and some Christian Democrats passed resolutions and granted interviews to Communist press reporters denouncing this "revival of Fascist violence" as a threat to democracy—quite oblivious that they were lending themselves to the propaganda purposes of democracy's deadliest enemies...

...Nobody was happy about this formula, but it seemed the only alternative to an open split...

...On March 12, at a weekend session of the Christian Democratic National Council, Secretary Fanfani declared in his report that the Center coalition had reached "the breaking point" and demanded that Scelba "clarify" his relations with the minor parties before leaving for the States...

...As a result, Scelba's American trip now looms as the closing chapter of his term in office—which limits his opportunities for accomplishing much in the United States...

...That same evening, the Senate voted in favor of the Paris agreements...

...The Republican party executive unanimously voted to reject the compromise formula and delivered a broadside against the Government's entire social and economic record...

...The fourpower Center coalition government was far more fragile and unseaworthy than Columbus's Santa Maria...

...Even the Communists might be persuaded to tacitly approve Nenni's supporting or joining a government headed by Fanfani, on the Trojan Horse theory...

...Ever since the war, contracts between landowners and tenant farmers—including the numerous types of Italian sharecroppers—have been frozen, despite major changes in the price and tax structures...

...it was even rolled back in several key sectors...