Summer Interlude in Italy
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
AS THE PARTIES REGROUP Summer Interlude in Italy BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome No suspense, no fireworks, no drama. Seldom has an Italian government been formed and seated in so...
...On the other hand, possibly whistling in the dark, PSI deputy and secretariat member Enrico Manca claimed the country's social and economic conditions are "not ripe for any additional rapprochement between Communists and Christian Democrats...
...In large part, the matter-of-fact acceptance of this first official modus operandi between the DC and PCI was due to the widespread feeling of resignation that developed after the June 20 national elections...
...Quickly a formula was found...
...Interestingly, even L'Unita, the PCI paper, sounded somewhat doubtful about the actual existence of an agreement between Schmidt and President Ford and suggested the undertaking may have been a German move rather than a concerted Western policy...
...Indications are, however, of an early resumption of the debate on the so-called "historic compromise...
...And yet its existence is due to the unprecedented, and until a few years ago unthinkable, cooperation of the Communist party (PCI...
...The hope in some quarters is that the Socialists will use the Andreotti interlude to thoroughly reappraise their policies and leadership, and one step in this direction has already been taken: Party Secretary Francesco De Martino, picked as the scapegoat of the electoral setback, has been replaced by Bettino Craxi, a pragmatic politician who recognizes the dangers of a foolish maximalist stand...
...Most analysts are convinced that what Andreotti calls the "much needed truce" and the Communists describe as a "temporary phase" will be short-lived...
...Not surprisingly, the DC high command was nonplussed and furious...
...Possibly reassured by the premiership of Andreotti, who was leader of the DC Right for years, the moderate and conservative sectors of the dominant party have been singularly quiescent...
...The Christian Democrats, too, have carefully avoided polemical statements and controversial stands...
...Popolo shrewdly hit back, drawing a parallel between Schmidt's statement and Brezhnev's...
...In the columns of the daily Manifesto they have severely attacked the PCI stand and accused the party of straying from the Marxist-Leninist fold...
...What then...
...DC secretary Benigno Zaccagnini addressed a plea for cooperation to all the constitutional parties...
...It remains to be seen whether the apparat will let him move the party back to a position between the DC and the PCI...
...They maintain that once the Premier's economic program (basically approved by the PCI) has been passed, the fragility of the minority government is bound to become a major issue...
...They fail to see, though, that even in the formula they advocate there would be little elbow room for the minor formations...
...The only outspoken criticism has come from the former extraparliamentarians of Democrazia Proletaria...
...Despite Manca's optimism the Socialist party, mainly responsible for the early dissolution of Parliament, is on the spot and knows it...
...As the recent balloting demonstrated, the electorate will vote for the genuine article...
...The Communists are savoring the sweet taste of success, stressing in their pronouncements the provisional nature of the new government and the need to bring about a coalition of all the democratic forces, including, of course, the PCI...
...Schmidt's disclosure occurred just as the Christian Democrats were struggling to form a government without Communist participation...
...Italians have enough common sense to grant any country the right to withhold economic aid that might be used to advance policies it opposes...
...Consequently, Italy now has a government supported by 40 per cent of Parliament, opposed by 8 per cent and tolerated—until when?—by 52 per cent...
...The Communists, who had just been assigned the chairmanship of seven committees in both the Senate and Chamber of Deputies, then announced they would abstain...
...By next spring the need for a new "clarification," a polite word for government crisis, will be paramount...
...But thus far they have exhibited no desire to be coercive...
...For the entire DC the summer recess is a precious breathing spell, the main concern of party leaders being to spare Andreotti additional headaches before the wrangling begins over his economic program...
...While the June losers squirm and squawk, the winners cooly wait...
...Now, in order to escape the joint dominance of the two major parties, the Socialists are pressing for a wide coalition...
...There was only a brief minuet prior to the tacit agreement...
...The only episode of heightened tensions between the DC and PCI has been variously called "the Italian loan caper," "a clay footed incursion into Italy's domestic affairs," and the "perennial German gaffe...
...It was triggered on July 17 when West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt stated that at the Puerto Rican economic summit held in June, the United States, West Germany, France and Great Britain jointly decided to withhold further loans from Italy if Communists received Cabinet posts...
...The Communists were willing to abstain in the vote of confidence on the new government but wanted to be publicly approached...
...The expression, coined by Enrico Berlinguer three years ago, refers to an open agreement between the DC and the PCI leading to Communist participation in the government...
...The PSI's dream of acting as a potent force mediating between DC and PCI has been shattered by the election returns...
...The Christian Democrats, though, had promised never to negotiate with their traditional foe...
...After 30 years the Socialists have not yet fully realized that to be influential, they must stand firmly as PCI critics...
...All the other parties followed suit, with the exception of the neo-Fascists and the extreme Left-wingers...
...In the Italian political spectrum there is no place for a pro-Communist Socialist party...
...The DC daily Popolo immediately denounced the "inadmissible blackmail," and embarrassed government spokesmen defended former Premier Aldo Moro and Foreign Minister Mariano Rumor from charges that they were in cahoots with Schmidt or asleep at the switch during the San Juan conference...
...And Italian public opinion generally was less incensed at Schmidt's remarks than Western correspondents reported...
...Judging from comments in the press, the Italian public does not seem overly upset by this turn of events...
...The Socialists' (PSI) persistent refusal to participate in a coalition government without the PCI's stamp of approval had made a deal between the two major parties a foregone conclusion...
...A few days after the seating of the Andreotti government, Republican leader and former Vice Premier Ugo La Malfa pessimistically stated that a compromise arrangement is inevitable, since "the evolution of Italy's political situation distinctly favors the inception of a government role for the PCI...
...After noting that Brezhnev, "who ordered the armed reconquest of Czechoslovakia," is hardly entitled to denounce the interference of other nations, Popolo took the PCI to task for its silence after the Pravda interview...
...Temporarily shelved at the outset of the April-June electoral campaign, the subject is popping up again in Center-Left quarters, where it is generally feared...
...Silvio F. Senigallia reports regularly for The New Leader on Italy...
...Moreover, once the taboo against Communist participation in the government has vanished, a PSI buffer will no longer be needed...
...This was clearly spelled out in the Center-Left daily Stampa by Jean Francois Revel, a French expert on Italian affairs, and reflects the view held by many who on June 20 voted against Communist participation in the government...
...The question may seem somewhat premature, since Parliament, after giving the government its meager vote of confidence on August 11, recessed and will not be back in session until the end of this month...
...The fracas had barely subsided when Soviet Communist Party chief Leonid I. Brezhnev, in an unusual Pravda interview, heavily condemned the Western democracies and the Puerto Rican ukase...
...Still, the government had barely been seated when observers began predicting it would soon fall...
...Seldom has an Italian government been formed and seated in so uneventful a fashion as the Christian Democratic (DC) minority Cabinet headed by Giulio Andreotti...
Vol. 59 • September 1976 • No. 18
