Italy Opens to the Left

...For while 92 per cent of the CD's newly elected National Council supported Fanfani and Moro at last month's party Congress in Naples, there is more opposition than meets the eye...

...For their part, the leaders of the Center parties have reassured Italy's allies by publicly committing the new Government to support of the West...

...In his new enthusiasm for moderate progressivism, the Communist chief even has kind words for the Common Market and "neocapitalism...

...For the past 16 years Italy has pursued a contradictory economic policy...

...Its key points include: greater regional autonomy...

...Since the election of Pope John XXIII, several Italian cardinals and bishops have continued to use their influence against allowing the Socialists into the Government...

...Gronchi began his term as President in 1955 by stating that "no progress" was possible without the active support of the working class and its participation in the life of the State...

...They also realize that it carries serious risks and is opposed by a large number of Center politicians, including many in their own party...

...By admitting them to the Government, the Christian Democrats could help sever the Socialists' remaining links with the Communists in unions, cooperatives and front organizations...

...2. A Parliamentary alliance with the Socialists offers an effective means of wooing them further away from Communist influence...

...Today, Nenni considers neutralism more a long-range aspiration than an immediate political goal...

...The idea of a working allCenter government, long ineffective, has now been abandoned...

...In 1958, when he was both Prime Minister and Secretary of the party, an attempt to implement his ideas ended in his resignation from both offices...

...When these tactics failed to halt the movement to the Left, Togliatti suddenly changed course and announced his full approval of the new alignment, with or without the commitments requested by the Socialists...

...Guiseppe Saragat, head of the Social Democrats, split with the Socialists over this very issue...

...Certainly, there are great differences between the two parties...

...and more efficient tax collecting, with special emphasis on flushing out tax-evaders among the wealthier citizens...

...This is the same prelate who, on his own initiative, tried to embarrass John F. Kennedy during the spring 1960 primaries by writing, in the Vatician newspaper Osservatore Romano, that the Church had "the right and the duty to intervene" in politics and to expect "dutiful discipline from Catholics...

...According to Moro, there were two major reasons why his party had to open to the Left: 1. The success of the postwar reconstruction period and the boom that followed aggravated the already unequal distribution of national wealth and created problems that demand immediate state intervention...

...For some time the Italian Communist leader has mobilized all his resources in various local elections in order to persuade the Socialist electorate that a LeftCenter coalition would be disastrous...

...In fact, these were the first spontaneous mass protests to take place in Italy since the War...

...The tempo of economic expansion and social change in Italy has been uneven: An immense gap still separates the industrial North from the backward South...

...Shortly afterward, however, Saragat (not without U.S...

...Clearly, Saragat believes that the new coalition will bolster the declining fortunes of both himself and his party...

...And only last month Alfred Cardinal Ottaviani denounced the new line of the Christian Democrats...

...Actually, however, Nenni's present political position differs from Fanfani's much less than is admitted in public...

...Only by cooperating with the Socialists could the much needed increased state planning be assured...

...The Christian Democrats and their Center partners have always been staunch supporters of the Western alliance...

...And Fanfani has indicated he believes the Common Market is ultimately more important to the West than NATO...

...Since his days as Cardinal Roncalli, Patriarch of Venice, he has always been considered as one of Italy's most progressive prelates...

...The program agreed upon by the four parties is an impressive one...

...Premier Fanfani and Aldo Moro, the skillful Secretary of the Christian Democratic party, are fully aware that the new political alignment offers them a great opportunity...

...Supporting a government in which they have no direct representation involves political risks...

...On the one hand, the Government encouraged free enterprise...

...private capital has withheld investment in these areas for fear of imminent nationalization, while the Government has never had the authority to fill the gap...

...Why, then, has it taken until now to bring about the move to the Left...

...Of course, many Socialist leaders are also wary of the new coalition...

...gradual nationalization of the electric industry...

...The old Center coalition could not possibly push through an aggressive program, since the Liberals have reverted to strict free-enterprise principles and the combined votes of the Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Republicans fall short of a Parliamentary majority...

...In its place, finally, has come the muchheralded apertura a sinistra—the "opening to the Left...

...Over the years it has successfully resisted all impulses to move too far in either direction...

...But for some time Nenni has stressed that these differences need not be completely reconciled in order to create a working Parliamentary relation...

...In 1947, the Socialists, along with the Communists, were expelled from the Government...

...on the other, whenever and whereever private initiative proved to be inadequate, it moved in directly through state corporations such as the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (ENI) and the National Hydrocarbon Association (IRA...

...But it would be unfair to the Social Democratic leader not to point out that Nenni has given ample evidence in recent years that his days of fellow-traveling are over...

...A large number of Moro's own group (the so-called dorotei), which constitutes the CD's most powerful faction, jumped on the bandwagon only to be in a better position to influence future political decisions...

...No longer stymied by any organized opposition from the Church's top ranks, CD leaders were finally able to launch the party on a new course...

...His party has refrained from calling for withdrawal from the Western alliance or any other radical change in Italian foreign policy...

...Since 1956, Nenni's party has tended more and more to support democratic institutions and to cut its ties with the extreme Left...

...substantial investment in the modernization of the educational system...

...In 1946, while Italy was still occupied by the Allies, Nenni was even entrusted with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs...

...The only apparent obstacle to a Center-Left coalition was the professed neutralism of Nenni and his party...

...In the Chamber of Deputies, the alliance includes 273 CD deputies, 18 Social Democrats, six Republicans and a decisive bloc of 86 Nenni Socialists, for a total of 383 out of 596 seats...

...Adequate legislation in the fields of atomic and electric power, for example, is long overdue...

...They expressed popular dissatisfaction with neo-Fascist tendencies and the new authoritarianism of the Right...

...If realized, these measures would provide a welcome contrast to the virtual political and social paralysis which has prevailed under the various Center coalitions...

...This, plus a host of problems created by Italy's entry into the European Common Market, make a central planning agency imperative...

...At the recent party Congress, when Moro called for an opening to the Left not merely as a necessary Parliamentary tactic but as a longterm alliance based on common Christian Democratic-Socialist objectives, a large number of delegates still were shocked...

...And the Catholic Church's traditional influence over the CD leadership has helped to make conservatism and the status quo the trademarks of Christian Democracy...

...The answer, which is rarely mentioned in the press although it is essential to any understanding of Italian affairs, is to be found in the role of the Catholic Church...

...He has also given substantial aid to the pro-Communist minority within the Socialist party...

...There have even been reports that the Pope has privately expressed his satisfaction with the results of the Naples Congress...

...Like other large popular parties in democratic countries, it has both Leftist and Rightist elements, but its heart is in the Center...

...Yet the opening to the Left offers them a unique opportunity of insuring an active role in government for the Italian working class...

...Fanfani, Moro and the other CD leaders know, however, that these views are not shared by Pope John...

...After all, there has been no major change on the Italian scene in recent months: The trend toward greater autonomy within the Socialist party has been clear for some time...

...For years powerful voices both inside and outside the Center parties have demanded reform...

...But even the 1960 crisis failed to convince many Christian Democrats...

...There have been reports that the Socialists will reciprocate by working behind the scenes for Saragat's election to the Presidency when Giovanni Gronchi's term of office ends in the spring...

...and the boom and its problems are hardly new...

...At the turn of the century, the Socialists began abandoning their extreme Marxist views and seemed about to enter the political arena as a major force...

...As Pope, he has reduced to a minimum ecclesiastical interference in the internal affairs of the Christian Democrats, and thereby restored to the party the freedom it enjoyed under the leadership of Alcide De Gaspari...

...No one knows this better than Palmiro Togliatti...

...In November 1961, the Italian Episcopal Conference exhorted Catholics to remain united and to remember the Vatican's directives against any kind of collaboration with Marxists...

...The demonstrations which eventually toppled the Tambroni government actually started without the encouragement of any political party, and the Communists were the last to offer their support...

...Of the 24 posts in Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani's new Cabinet, 19 are held by his Christian Democratic party, three by the Social Democrats and two by the Republicans...

...To prevent the isolation of the Communists from other political groups, Togliatti is willing to go very far indeed...

...This is a goal that the Socialists have pursued for more than 50 years...

...CHRISTIAN DEMOCRATS LAUNCH NATION ON NEW COURSE Italy Opens to the Lett By Mauro Calamandrei The formation late last month of a Center-Left coalition Government in Rome, made up of Christian Democrats, Social Democrats and Republicans, and supported by Pietro Nenni's Left-wing Socialists, constitutes the most important shift in Italian politics since 1948...

...encouragement) split the party and formed the Social Democrats...

...They branded the demonstrations as "Communist...

...but it was rejected by a majority of the party...

...speeded-up development of atomic energy under direct government management...

...But World War I led to a profound break with the country's liberal leadership, and for the next 25 years Socialist aspirations were frustrated by the Fascist rule...

...Mauro Calamandrei is the United States correspondent for the liberal Rome weekly, L'Espresso...

...By nature, the Christian Democratic party is conservative...

...Fanfani's 1958 efforts to jettison a Center coalition that served only conservative interests was vetoed by the ecclesiastical hierarchies, actively supported by the Vatician...

...After World War II, the old dream again seemed about to be realized...

...the Center parties were thoroughly disillusioned about the conservative-minded Liberals long ago...

...It took a political earthquake in the summer of 1960, which threatened the country with civil war, to shake the party's leaders out of their lethargy...

...More serious is a country-wide educational crisis, from kindergarten through the university...

...But, although the measures now proposed to deal with these problems are extremely important, they are more in the nature of a stop-gap program than a blueprint for the radical transformation of the country...

...many parts of the country lack essential services, or even the information needed for their creation...

...Both Premier Fanfani and President Gronchi have long tried to convince their party that political cooperation with the Left is a prerequisite to real social progress in Italy...

...The opening to the Left should make it possible for the Christian Democrats not only to retain command of Italian political life but to provide wiser leadership for a country in the throes of extremely rapid social and economic transformations...

...And the Government's inability to enforce existing tax laws is a national scandal, often commented upon by local and foreign observers...

...At the time, many American journalists accepted at face value the explanation for the discontent offered by Premier Fernando Tambroni...

...In 1954, Fanfani made his position plain to the CD's National Congress...

...How much the situation has changed since then is best illustrated by the fact that the most dedicated and passionate supporter of an opening to the Left in recent months has been Saragat himself...

...The series of popular demonstrations convinced them the time had come to stop flirting with the reactionary and Fascist Right, and to consider seriously the possibility of a working relation with Nenni's Socialists...