The Government Nobody Wanted
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
ITALY'S NEW MINORITY CABINET The Government Nobody Wanted BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome "THE government noI body wanted." Thus the new Center-Left daily Repubblica aptly described Italy's...
...They were pressing for a revival of the old Center-Left alliance but the PSI was not willing to go along...
...In fact, everything has gotten worse: the balance of payments, the state of the lira, inflation, unemployment, labor discontent, rampaging criminality...
...For the last two years or so, the Communist strategy has centered on the goal of joining the Christian Democrats at the top...
...The DC, whose leaders have headed all the administrations of post-Mussolini Italy, is still the country's largest party, and had to swallow the bitter pill...
...As for the Center-Left coalition, the Socialists seem adamant in their determination to block its revival...
...The Christian Democrats certainly didn't want this...
...The PSI dreams about leading a Leftist coalition, forgetting that the PSI-PCI ratio is about one to three...
...The Communists have repeatedly ruled out the "51 per cent theory"—that is, a government coalition of Communists, Socialists, DC Left-wingers, and others, whose combined strength might barely reach the 51 per cent mark—and continue to press for an agreement with the Catholic party as a whole...
...The other is the one that has run Italy since 1962, the basically anti-Communist Center-Left grouping, representing 56 per cent of the electorate...
...Nobody wanted this stop-gap solution...
...And the December 1975 ruling by the Italian bishops that Christianity and Marxism are incompatible has only stiffened its attitude...
...The small lay parties—the Republicans, who had participated in the last coalition, and the Social Democrats—are unhappy, too...
...Zaccagnini, who had been trying to smooth relations with the PCI, could not avoid stating that "any constructive confrontation with the PCI on specific issues must be based on a clear distinction between the government's and the opposition's roles...
...Were a vote to be held this summer, one year ahead of schedule, the Communists might emerge as the dominant party in the country...
...If the government the Socialists toppled had stayed in power, or if a general election had been called, De Martino, whose decision betrayed a petulant mood, would have become very unpopular, even within his own party...
...One is the "historic compromise...
...The Socialists did not want this government either...
...One obvious answer lies in the DCs fear of an early general election...
...But for the time being this thinking is being rejected by Premier Moro and DC Secretary Benigno Zaccagnini, both members of the party's progressive wing, who may be stalling until the DC national congress, scheduled to be held at the end of this month...
...The political game must go on no matter what happens to the country...
...But the Christian Democratic leadership, fearing the reaction of the Church and of the party's formidable conservative wing, is not yet ready to revise its traditional policy on the Communist issue...
...There is little doubt that just as the French Communists altered their traditional line in imitation of Berlinguer's successful strategy, the Italian Socialists are mesmerized by the success of Francois Mitter-and's French Socialists...
...Yet Berlinguer was not happy with the Socialists' decision to force a showdown...
...Communist caginess and Christian Democratic misrule here, in the midst of a dangerous economic crisis, produced a weak minority Cabinet that, according to most observers, is destined to fall within three months...
...As for the Communists (PCI), they are hardly pleased, of course, but theirs is a different problem...
...Why then has Moro's monocolore been formed and seated...
...the combined strength of the Communists and Christian Democrats amounts to over two thirds of the national vote and Parliamentary seats...
...Now they find themselves committed to keeping a weak, stop-gap arrangement alive through Parliamentary abstention, with no reward in sight...
...Yet they oppose a government role for the PCI as premature, for their long-term objective is a "Left alternative,'' a Left-wing alliance with the Communists and against the DC...
...Soon after, however, the PCI leadership realized it had nothing to gain by weakening or alienating the PSI, and promptly modified the official line somewhat to get Socialist Secretary Francesco De Martino off the hook...
...Any development that could have a possible negative affect on this "historic compromise,' to use Berlinguer's expression, is viewed with hostility...
...Party Secretary and unchallenged leader Enrico Berlin-guer has long made it clear that while the PCI is ready to share power with the DC, it will not provide the Christian Democrats with free support from outside...
...The Communist newspapers Unita...
...Amintore Fanfani and other prominent conservative DC spokesmen keep insisting that the party is unlikely to improve its image during the next year, and that it might as well bluntly ask the voters now whether they want Communists in the government...
...It consists of an all-Christian Democratic (DC) minority Cabinet, supported by the Socialists (PSI) and the minor lay parties...
...They were hardly eager to bear sole responsibility for Italy at a time when its economic and financial problems are truly dramatic: 1.25 million people are unemployed, many industries are on the brink of bankruptcy and the democratic parties are at odds over the emergency measures necessary to cope with the situation...
...They had just toppled the previous one, precipitating an unpopular crisis, in order to get a larger share of power...
...and Rinascita employed strong language in early January to rebuke the bumbling cousins...
...Thus the new Center-Left daily Repubblica aptly described Italy's 38th regime in 32 years, and the fifth to be headed by Aldo Moro...
...Consequently, they have accepted the all-DC Cabinet, the so-called monocolore, out of hopelessness and a sense of responsibility...
...Moreover, in a January press conference held at the Rome Foreign Press Association, the DC Secretary voiced doubts as to the Communists' full acceptance of the pluralist principle, questioning their willingness to step down if, once in the government, they were opposed by a Parliamentary majority...
...But noblesse oblige...
...But the chances of a solution dictated by the urgency of current problems is extremely remote...
...Thus Socialist wishful thinking...
...For nothing has happened in Italy since the June 1975 regional elections—when the PCI scored massive gains and the DC suffered sizable losses—to convince the large numbers of middle-class voters who switched their allegiance to the Communists to come back into the DC fold...
...They will oppose Moro's monocolore as well as all future governments to which they are not formally linked...
...In the present Parliament, only two majority coalitions are possible...
...At this stage, one might be tempted to recommend a national emergency government including representatives of all parties and some leading economic experts...
...The politics of numbers is another reason for the monocolore...
...Unfortunately, this strategy clashes with the PCI's...
...Silvio F. Senigallia reports regularly for The New Leader on Italy...
...They constantly and viciously attack the DC, stating that they will never again enter an administration without the Communists...
...To this, the Socialists are firmly opposed lest they be squeezed between the two colossi...
Vol. 59 • March 1976 • No. 6
