Italy's 'Opening to the Left':
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
Italy's Opening to the Left' Municipal coalitions of Christian Democrats and Socialists may be prelude to future cooperation between two groups on national level By Silvio F Senigallia Rome The...
...In 1947, the pro-Western Socialist Right-wing seceded to form the Social Democratic party, but until 1955 the large majority of Socialists were dutiful junior partners of the Communists...
...The democratic lay Left, including left-of-center Republicans and Social Democrats, is unquestionably sincere in endorsing Socialist autonomy, even though the Social Democrats realize that this would mean their eventual absorption by the Socialists...
...Prime Minister Fanfani, Christian Democratic party Chairman Aldo Moro and other CD progressives are equally sincere in their support of the autonomous cause...
...Municipal administrations in Milan, Genoa and Florence, to mention some of the important ones, will now be run by joint Christian Democratic and Socialist councils...
...This attitude is shared by all of the Right-wing political groups and is particularly strong among the neoFascist ranks...
...For tactical reasons, too, they are against the defection of pro-Communist Socialist elements to their own party...
...Thus, it is unlikely that the present congress will do much more than officially confirm the existence of a slow trend toward the development of an independent Socialist party...
...This week's Socialist party congress in Milan, therefore, should provide some indication of the speed of the party's democratization process...
...Since the Khrushchev revelations and the events in Hungary, progress toward Socialist autonomy has been steady, if slow...
...At the last national congress, pro-Communist elements made up more than 40 per cent of the party...
...They foresee a Socialist party free from Communist influence as a natural ally in a future progressively oriented Catholic-Socialist coalition...
...Nothing was said or done to weaken the Socialists' strong ties with the Communists, however, until the following year...
...The autonomist faction will probably increase its present 58 per cent majority, but its leaders seem determined to avoid a showdown with the pro-Communist group...
...At their 1955 national congress in Turin, they spoke openly of the need for a so-called "dialogue with the Catholics...
...Opposed to any kind of working alliance with the Socialists, Christian Democratic conservatives prefer an openly pro-Communist Socialist party, because this would automatically rule out any Socialist participation in national affairs...
...They realize that this would facilitate autonomist leadership in the Socialist ranks and further isolate the Communists from other political groups...
...The Communists, of course, also oppose Socialist autonomy though they seem resigned to the idea of eventual Socialist independence...
...Fanfani and Moro know that the more conservative elements in their party pay only lip service to the cause of democratic Socialism...
...Although virtually all political groups are on record as advocating the democratization of the Socialist party and its participation in the shaping of national policies, the growing Socialist independence is being followed with mixed feelings by other Italian parties...
...At the height of their collaboration, in 1953, the Socialist-Communist bloc held over onethird of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies...
...Their main concern is still the preservation of party unity...
...Italy's Opening to the Left' Municipal coalitions of Christian Democrats and Socialists may be prelude to future cooperation between two groups on national level By Silvio F Senigallia Rome The long-awaited "opening to the Left" in Italian politics finally took place recently on the local level when a number of city governments were broadened to include members of Pietro Nenni's Socialist party...
...Two years later, aware that a large segment of the Italian working class was solidly in the Christian Democratic camp, the Socialists made a vague and tentative move toward reconcialiation with the majority party...
...Then Nikita Khrushchev's report on the crimes of the Stalin era and Soviet intervention in Hungary forced the Socialists to reappraise their alliance with the Communist party...
...For a decade following the end of World War II, the Socialists were allied with the Italian Communist party...
...Party leadership has been in the hands of Nenni and other members of the autonomist wing for the last few years, but about one-half of the Socialist Senators and Deputies still favor collaborating with the Communists...
...Only in this way, they maintain, can the Socialists play an important role in a national coalition...
...Their official statements are cautious and moderate, however, reflecting the fact that there is much sentiment among Christian Democrats against any change in the Socialist party...
...Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani's Christian Democratic party is playing down the importance of the new alignment, but it may well be the prelude to close collaboration between the Christian Democrats and the Socialists on a national level...
Vol. 44 • March 1961 • No. 12
