The Hard Questions in Italy

...Since Moro had seen his, kidnappers and had watched their operations, the public reasoned, they could not free him unharmed...

...But of greater concern at the moment than the probable configuration of the political landscape are the immediate issues of causes and responsibilities in a time of continuing terrorism...

...But now the Italians can be expected to make up for lost time...

...The Left's weakening of the state's defenses, the centrists argue, accounts for the government's ignorance of Moro's whereabouts and of the kidnappers' identities in spite of a 55-day investigation...

...The Communists refrained from sharply criticizing the administration's immo-bilismo because they feared this would offend large sectors of the public...

...AFTER MORO'S MURDER The Hard Questions in Italy by Silvio F. Senigallia Rome Throughout the long nightmare that began with Aldo Moro's abduction by the Red Brigades urban guerrilla organization and ended 35 days later when his bullet-riddled body was recovered, government and police officials here expressed pessimism about the former prime minister's chances of survival...

...But should the two parties find themselves pulling in opposite directions again in the future, the question of ideological responsibility for the terrorization of this country would take on major importance...

...In fact, the emergency parliamentary coalition formed by the DC and the PCI at the time of the abduction last March 16 is more strongly supported now as the one possible solution to Italy's deepening political crisis...

...By May 16, in the light of the Moro murder, the PCI had joined forces with the DC and ratified a tough new law expanding police powers and more strictly punishing kidnappers and terrorists...

...Most Italians concurred with those gloomy forecasts...

...To preserve the status quo and prolong the life of a government that needs Communist support in Parliament, the Christian Democrats must at present take care to avoid offending the PCI while denouncing terrorist radicals...

...What prompts their action...

...The parking of the car containing Moro's body half a block away from the PCI Botteghe Oscure headquarters was certainly not a coincidence...

...Officials contended that the release of a number of extremists being tried for murder, kidnapping and other acts of violence would deal a major blow to the authority of the state without saving the life of the majority party's president...

...He did not inspire love, but Italians had great respect for him...

...Others, however, still fear or hope (depending on their point of view) that the demise of Moro, the careful architect of the DC-PCI modus vivendi, will upset the status quo...

...While it is much too early to speculate on the long-term political effects of the Moro episode, in the short run it did not weaken the stability of the all-DC government...

...During the entire Moro incident, relations between the DC and the PCI were as friendly as they could ever be...

...What can the state do to better protect itself...

...For their part, Leftists cite an obsolete bureaucracy, the lack of a policemen's union and generally inhuman prison conditions to explain why the police and the judiciary cannot successfully repress terrorism...

...Yet despite this desperate mood, the news that Moro's body had been found-In the middle of the afternoon, in the center of Rome, in a car brazenly parked equidistant from the DC and the Communist (PCI) national headquarters-produced genuine and unbelievably intense outpourings of shock and sorrow...

...But regardless of the Communist leadership's severe and ostensibly sincere condemnation of the terrorists' crimes, the common ideological heritage of the Red Brigades and the PCI cannot be overlooked...

...The conviction that Moro was doomed strengthened the resolve of both Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti's administration and the Christian Democratic (DC) leadership: The Italian government would not yield to the terrorists' blackmail or to the pressure created by advocates of a "soft line" (led...

...tacked a moderate government compelled to resolve a tragedy caused by Left-wing extremists...

...Moderates will probably complain the loudest, blaming the DC leadership's gradual shift to the Left (which Moro himself had fully endorsed) for the deterioration of public order, the hamstringing of the police and the mistaken belief that Left-wing terrorism did not exist...

...Moro was a soft-spoken, patient and tenacious negotiator, rather than a charismatic leader who could enthrall a crowd...

...The DC Right wing, for instance, may once again decide to take advantage of any wavering in the party leadership to challenge the Communist presence in the parliamentary majority...

...Before March 16, to cite one, they had severely criticized the current legislation on public order (the Reale Act) and had pressed for its amendment to cut down the power granted the police...

...Even though the leading terrorists are undoubtedly fanatics and half-baked intellectuals whose whole political philosophy (if one may take liberties with the word) seems a revival of late 19th-century nihilism, many of their recruits, accomplices and apologists seek to restore the virulent strain of Communism that once marked the PCI, and undo its new ties to the Establishment...

...Most analysts here believe the truce between the Christian Democrats and Communists probably will not hit any snags at least until the end of the year...

...They will recall that a few years ago, the then minister of internal affairs, Christian Democrat Paolo Emilio Taviani, officially declared that all political terrorism would be traced to the neo-Fascists...

...The certainty of the murder, coupled with the unbearable suspense that dragged on for almost two months, frayed people's nerves to the point of arousing a widespread angry desire to have an end to the drama even if it meant death to the unfortunate prisoner...

...Many, many people are asking themselves a number of pertinent questions: How is it possible that small bands of political terrorists can operate with consummate arrogance and impunity all over the country despite a massive nationwide manhunt...

...There is a widespread tendency among the centrists to blame the Leftist parties for the emasculation of the secret service and for the low morale of the police forces...

...It should be noted out of fairness to the Communists, though, that the PCI has acknowledged its mistake in not paying enough attention to the danger posed by the extraparliamentary Left, yet neither the Socialists nor the Christian Democratic Left-wingers have voiced regret over their own former views about political terrorism...

...The PCI could only lose ground if it atSilvio F. Senigallia reports regularly for The New Leader from Rome...

...The Communist leadership repeatedly praised the Christian Democrats' firmness in rejecting a deal with the Red Brigades terrorists, and the occasional prodding needed to enact a jointly agreed upon program was done without any real asperity...

...As long as there was some hope of saving Moro's life, people did not engage in open arguments that would have divided the political alliance...

...Even the media took Moro's eventual murder for granted, running stories that speculated on the "post-Moro phase...

...But the Communists and the Socialists are somewhat uncomfortable with this interpretation, and their uneasiness could be the reason for their change of heart on some matters...

...Debate on these vital subjects is long overdue...

...oddly enough, by Socialist Party Secretary Bettino Craxi...

...The PCI left wing, in turn, could heighten its opposition to the so-called historic compromise -or to any kind of understanding with the DC-Since the only Christian Democrat the Left trusted can no longer curb the DC right's opposition to a working arrangement with the Communists...