Italy's Government Crisis

...Walter Lucas reports regularly for the Christian Science Monitor...

...A new outlook is required if the Socialists are to make a mark on the future, he urged...

...While the two parties have conceded that Nenni himself is sincere in his efforts to lead the Socialists into a coalition, they feel the proceedings of the Congress have made it eminently clear that he does not have anything like complete control of his party...

...This did not mean that a considerable number of voters had suddenly become converted to Communism, but rather that in its electoral propaganda the Communists had persuaded an increasing number of people that their party was better equipped than the others to carry through to completion the economic and social reforms that had already been initiated...

...Indeed, the final resolution is by no means clear-cut on two vital issues: the party's association with the Communists, and its support of the Atlantic Alliance...

...The immediate reactions of the Christian Democrats and the Democratic Socialists to the resolution finally agreed upon at the Socialist Congress do not suggest any reasons for great optimism over a successful outcome to the new negotiations...

...If the negotiations do not succeed, there is a real danger that Italian democracy may be crushed by the authoritarian forces of either the Left or the Right...

...It means that for the first time since World War II the Socialists, by a majority vote, have decided to cross the rubicon and enter the democratic fold...

...Now is the time for a political rather than a doctrinal assessment, even if it means weakening the solidarity of the working-class front...

...Adding the votes received by the other Left-of-Center parties, the Democratic Socialists and the Republicans, the total came to 46 per cent of the nation's popular vote...

...a small group which is attempting to lean both ways at the same time...

...Clearly, therefore, it is urgent that the negotiations for Socialist participation in the government succeed...

...Nenni has been saying this, or things very much like it, for the past several months...

...Whereas for the past five years these elections have shown a steady decline in Communist support among skilled workers, this year the trend was reversed and the Communists made large gains...

...There has been a continuous swing to the Left in Italy for some years now, with the Leftwings of the Center parties moving further Leftward all the time...

...The Socialists are divided into three factions: those who are determined to maintain association with the Communists and uphold the solidarity of the Left-wing working-class parties...

...On the other side, the Communists are standing in the wings waiting to reap whatever they can from the situation...

...Here, then, was a mandate from nearly half the people of Italy demanding a Leftward direction from their government...

...It appears, therefore, that Lombardi still has the power— and, some people suspect, the intention—to ruin any agreement made by Nenni which does not suit his own demands...

...and for their ideological obstinancy in 1947, which resulted in a party split that sent one group into the democratic fold and the other into cooperation with the Communists and sterile political isolation...

...And even now he has only slim control of the Socialist's policymaking Central Committee, with 59 supporters in a body of 101...

...Insofar as it is generally recognized that a Center-Left coalition with Socialist participation is the only viable mode of achieving stable government, Pietro Nenni's followers have in some measure made amends for past errors: for their dithering conduct in 1922, which was largely responsible for the Fascist seizure of power...

...As an old adage has it, "Where three Italians are gathered together there are three political parties...

...Along with their differences on domestic issues, the factions within the Socialist party are not in harmony on foreign policy...

...It was Lombardi, the party's economic mentor, who more than anyone else was responsible for wrecking last summer's negotiations...

...While this may add to the fervor of political debate and the excitement of cafe discussion, it leads to political anarchy...

...For failure to solve the present impasse could well mean that the only alternative will be another general election...

...and the majority talk in veiled terms of neutrality and opposition to multilateral armament, though at the same time they agree to full participation in NATO...

...Even though the present omens are not favorable, the Italian genius for compromise may finally break the present deadlock, which is paralyzing Italy internally and undermining its relationship with the rest of the Western world...

...The Fanfani government gave way after the general elections of last April, when it was discovered that the shift toward the Left among the electorate had been more radical than most people had suspected...

...With Socialist support in Parliament, Fanfani embarked on an economic reform program, including nationalization of the electrical power industry, which went further than any previous government had ever dared venture...

...In practical terms, it injects the same element of rigidity into the new coalition negotiations that was responsible for the failure of a similar initiative last summer...

...Indeed, the most startling fact of the elections was that the Communists secured one out of every four votes...

...A whole new world is on the move," Secretary Nenni told the delegates to the Congress...

...As this is being written, there are already signs of hardening opposition from some segments of the Christian Democratic party against sharing the government with Pietro Nenni's Socialists...

...The Leftist minority wants no part of the Atlantic Alliance...

...An indication of their growing influence was recently given in the elections for shop-steward committees in the vast Fiat factories in Turin...

...Yet here is a condition which the absence of a strong Italian government is certainly not helping...

...Yet whatever the reason for the Communist's success at the polls, there was no denying that the working-class parties of the Left— the Communists and the Socialists —between them won the support of 39 per cent of the electorate...

...This general movement resulted in the "opening to Left" experiment of Amintore Fanfani's government in 1962...

...There is no surety that when the present negotiations with the three parties of the Center coalition —the Christian Democrats, the Democratic Socialists and the Republicans—come to their crucial stages he will be able to carry the party, or for that matter his own majority...

...Many politicians on the Right are looking with approval on what General de Gaulle has wrought for France...

...These various conflicts made a strong imprint on the resolution that was ultimately adopted at the party Congress...

...and the majority, which is itself split by the followers of Riccardo Lombardi...

...those in the middle look to a position of "active neutrality...

...At the moment, the majority of the Socialists wish to put ideological differences aside so that the party can have a hand in molding the shape of a rapidly changing Italian political and social scene...

...Yet clarity on both points is imperative, for to the parties of the Center a complete break with the Communists and a vision of Italy as a faithful partner in NATO are basic to accepting the Socialists in a coalition...

...His suggestive remark that the Socialists in the government would force further measures of nationalization was enough to frighten the wits out of the more conservative Center parties...

...This can largely be explained by a deteriorating economic situation, in which inflation is wiping out most of the recent advances made by workers...

...As things stand now, there is little doubt that the Communists would emerge with an even greater measure of success...

...But until the Congress he had been unable to get a majority of his party to go along with him...

...Although many people here realize the grave consequences that might flow from the failure to build a strong Left-of-Center government, the game of party politics continues to be played at the expense of the national interest...

...It is also responsible for the proliferation of Italian political parties, and for the subsequent splitting up of each of these into several additional groups...

...It would thus seem that internal dissension and the wornout trappings of Marxist ideology may once again obscure the Socialists' view of the realities of the present situation as well as of their party's own true interests...

...On purely mathematical grounds, this indicated that, with the Communists still considered outside the pale of democratic government, no administration was possible without the support of the Socialist party...

...It also was Lombardi's speech at last month's Congress which set in motion doubts about Nenni's ability to control his supporters...

...In its inability to speak out with one voice, the Socialist party suffers the national affliction of Italian politics...

...AFTER THE NENNI PARTY CONGRESS Italy's Government Crisis By Walter Lucas Rome The recent decision of the National Congress of the Italian Socialist party to re-open negotiations for a Center-Left coalition government somewhat brightens Italy's political horizon...

...This became all too apparent at the Congress when it turned out that even among his own supporters there are some who will follow Nenni only on certain conditions...