Premier Scelba's Rocky Road
STEVENS, EDMUND
Premier Scelbas Rocky Road Sicilian vote threatens coalition By Edmund Stevens Rome The substantial gains scored by Christian Democratic Premier Mario Scelba's party in the Sicilian regional...
...The Communists have tried to cover this setback by stressing the growth of the left-wing Socialists, who bettered their showing from 170,046 or 7.45 per cent two years ago to 225.994 or 9.7 per cent now...
...In terms of figures, their vote declined from 497...
...Much as he and other minor-party figures in the Government dislike giving up their portfolios, after the Sicilian election they haven't much choice...
...Apart from their impact on the future of the Government, the Sicilian elections dispelled fears that the Communists' recent losses in Northern Italy were more than offset by their supposed progress in the South...
...This will entitle them to 37 of the 90 seats in the Sicilian Regional Parliament, compared to their previous 30...
...They were thrown for a slight but significant loss...
...3. The "relaxed" international situation alter the Austrian Treaty agreement and in view of the impending "summit" meeting...
...But save for a few Cabinet posts, the Christian Democrats have shown little inclination to share the spoils of office with their junior partners...
...The Monarchists took away votes from the neo-Faseist MSI...
...which thereby grew smaller and weaker...
...Currently...
...much as the Nenni Socialists gained at the expense of the Communist party...
...4. The feeling of a growing body of anti-clericals that a vote for any of the minor coalition members was a vote for the Christian Demoetats...
...For the gains were largely at the expense of the three small coalition parties...
...This presumably referred to Christian Democratic party secretary Amintore Fanfani's campaign assertions that unless Sicilian voters gave his party an absolute majority, it would ha\c to bring in the Nenni Socialists, which sounded like both a threat and a promise...
...494 or 21.8 per cent in 1953 to 481...
...Whether or not the minor parties will pull out of the Government, the future political outlook also hinges on how the Sicilian results affect the various trends and factions within the Christian Democracy...
...Meanwhile, the right-wing "Con-centrazione" faction, heavily loaded with big names from the party's recent past, is bound to step up its agitation for a right-of-center alliance with the Monarchists, who more than held their own in Sicily, despite a split in their ranks...
...By supporting the center coalition, the minor parties have kept the Christian Democrats in power for the last two years, or ever since the June 195.3 national elections destroyed their one-party majority...
...The extremes at both ends lost out...
...Saragat in his post-election commentary sharply criticized "the continued advance of the Catholic integralist forces under the impulse of the present Christian Democratic leadership as well as the continued ambiguity about an opening toward the Socialist party...
...The trend, though mild, is unmistakable...
...In the Sicilian clections, the Christian Democrats improved their score from 831,645 or 36.4 per cent in the 1953 national tally to 895,318 or 38.6 per cent at present...
...2. The talk which Saragat described as "continued ambiguity" about a Christian Democrat-Socialist alliance...
...instead, they have hurt his Cabinet's chances of survival...
...Meanwhile, the combined strength of Liberals, Social Democrats and Republicans shrank from 8.8 per cent to 6.7 per cent, while their seats were reduced from 8 to 5. The numerical loss of votes was aggravated by the refusal of the Christian Democrats last April to support a proposed change in the Sicilian electoral law which would have permitted the minor parties to scrape together their scattered votes from all precincts into a single pile for election of a certain number of deputies-at-large...
...the Social Democrats, Republicans and Liberals...
...On the morrow of the published returns, Vice Premier Giuseppe Sara-gat, the Social Democratic leader, stated in effect that unless his party broke out of the dead end to which membership in the coalition had led it, there would be no party left...
...The climax came when a Christian Democrat, against the express will of the minor parties, was recently elected President of the Republic, a post which by its very nature demanded a figure above par-tisanship...
...975 or 20.8 per cent at present...
...On the contrary, they have placed their own people in practically every influential and lucrative position, greatly ex-lending their sources of political pa-tronage...
...The Communists not only failed to gain ground...
...Nenni's party is benefit-ing from several factors, the most important of which are: 1. Election to the Presidency of Giovanni Gronchi, who in the past has favored an alliance with the Socialists...
...The Christian Democrats' rejection of this proposal had already caused deep resentment...
...Premier Scelbas Rocky Road Sicilian vote threatens coalition By Edmund Stevens Rome The substantial gains scored by Christian Democratic Premier Mario Scelba's party in the Sicilian regional elections did not strengthen his hand...
...But despite the Communist-Socialist unity pact, a vote for Nenni is by no means the same thing as a vote for Red boss Palmiro Togliatti's party...
Vol. 38 • June 1955 • No. 25
