Andreotti Off the Hook
SENIGALLIA, SILVIO F.
THE MIDEAST TUG OF WAR-4 Andreotti Off the Hook BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome Immediately after Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait, the Italian government severely condemned the...
...The flotilla, eventually tobecomea European task force, would operate in close coordination with U.S...
...Bitterly anti-American, proud of their past, belligerently uncompromising, the dissidents seem unfazed that most of the party has decided to go along with its leader...
...On August 13, a week and a half into the crisis, Le Monde correspondent Claire Tréan noted in a dispatch from Rome "a certain resistance on the part of some EC countries to assume military commitments within NATO...
...In fact, owing to the Parliamentary confidence vote, the coalition now has the advantage of knowing that it is fairly secure on the foreign-policy front, for the time being at least...
...ships involved in the blockade...
...Their rebelling in Parliament, on a vital foreign-policy issue, is widely viewed as a prelude to an eventual walkout...
...Government spokesmen here promptly denied that Italy had any such intention...
...Indeed, it was the Communists who fell victim to strife...
...Prime Minister Andreotti, justly famous for his subtlety, made it unambiguously clear that his policy will continue to be ambiguous...
...Bocca's warning about his countrymen's dim awareness of parallels to the events of 1938 was timely...
...As the days went by, though, it became increasingly apparent that there was more than one school of thought within the Rome government...
...Yet the proceedings did shed some light on Italy's strategy in the region...
...At the same time, however, the use of Italian land and air forces was ruled out "due to a lack of preparedness and adequate bases...
...The noted Repubblica columnist Giorgio Bocca recently surmised that Italians favor a diplomatic solution to the Middle East conflict, even if it means the partial appeasement of the Iraqi dictator...
...The units would not proceed as far as the Persian Gulf...
...Contrary to early fears, then, the Kuwait crisis has not proved to be an additional headache for the far-from-solid coalition government...
...Under the tight leadership of PCI General Secretary Achille Occhetto, the great majority of Communist deputies decided to abstain in the confidence vote—thereby indirectly, though not unwittingly, supporting Andreotti...
...But 23 of them defied their party chief and voted against the government...
...It is reasonable to suppose, however, that the man on the street is against any kind of serious national involvement...
...The extremists, who may represent 25 per cent of the PCI rank and file, are led by some of the party's old charismatic leaders who refuse to concede that the Italian Communists bear any of the taint of Stalinism...
...Italian ships set sail immediately, and after 48 hours Parliament was advised and a vote of confidence requested...
...Concern over national prestige seems to be limited to World Soccer Cup matches...
...It would be ironic if this were to happen just when it has become obvious that the present coalition, thanks to the uneasy but indispensable entente between the Christian Democrats and the Communists, is the only viable formula for governing the country...
...The referendum is vehemently opposed by Socialist leader Bettino Craxi, who is afraid that the reforms it comprises would strengthen the two largest parties—the Christian Democrats and the Communists—at the expense of his own...
...The nation's responsibilities as a member of NATO and president pro tempore of the European Community (EC) were stressed to convey a firm attitude...
...But in almost the same breath he complained of the "stagnant search" for solutions to the Palestinian and Lebanese stalemates, recalled Israel's "inadmissible raid" against Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981, and defended the "Palestinians' right to a mother country...
...Whether he likes or trusts the United States, he is likely to be all in favor of letting Uncle Sam do it...
...Toward this end a petition for a referendum that would bring about those changes was recently circulated by groups of "transversal" voters, and enough signatures were gathered to make it effective, subject to the approval of the Constitutional Court...
...The midAugust cover of the weekly Panorama blared, "To Die for Kuwait...
...Not without a touch of irony, the media have dubbed Occhetto's proposed creation la Cosa (the Thing...
...In contrast to the issue of legislative reform, public opinion has scarcely made itself felt here on the Kuwait crisis...
...The ever-shrewd Christian Democratic (DC) Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti showed little inclination toward immediate action...
...The WEU decision, together with the UN Security Council resolution four days later sanctioning the use of force to block Iraq's trade, got Andreotti off the hook: Now he could neither be accused of taking unilateral action nor labeled an untrustworthy ally...
...Craxi has repeatedly announced his determination to topple the government, if necessary, to block the referendum...
...being chary of domestic repercussions and anxious to avoid a showdown with the traditionally pro-Arab Communist Party (PCI), he pressed instead for caution and delay...
...The biggest threat to the government's longevity at the moment is posed, rather, by athorny domestic matter...
...they would simply "show the flag" in the eastern Mediterranean and replace U.S...
...But on August 21 a new development made consultation with Parliament inevitable: The Western European Union (WEU), an often dormant nine-nation defense organization, ordered warships to the Gulf to enforce the economic embargo against Iraq...
...Certainly the action of the PCI extremists came as a rude surprise to Occhetto, who had succeeded in wresting important concessions from Andreotti...
...In Parliament, moreover, all went remarkably well for the government, with the coalition holding together for once...
...Silvio F. Senigallia reports regularly forThe New Leader on Italian affairs...
...The only loud outcry so far has come from car owners enraged by the increase in the price of gas, which now costs five dollars a gallon...
...The only Cabinet member to demand that an unequivocal stance be adopted was Egidio Sterpa, a member of the exceedingly small, pro-U.S., pro-West Liberal Party (PLI), who declared that Italy should behave in full accordance with the "power status" it lays claim to...
...There were no polls in August, since it is a month when virtually every Italian is on vacation...
...To be sure, those who hadhoped that during the August 22-23 Parliament debate the government would make it known exactly where it stood with regard to Israel, the Palestinians and the Middle East in general were disappointed...
...THE MIDEAST TUG OF WAR-4 Andreotti Off the Hook BY SILVIO F. SENIGALLIA Rome Immediately after Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait, the Italian government severely condemned the aggression and announced that Italy would not be a mere spectator but would act in concert with its allies to deal with this serious breach of international law...
...Notable among these was the inclusion of the Palestinian question and the issue of a "foreign presence" in Lebanon in the revised government confidence motion...
...according to Giorgio Napolitano, the shadow cabinet foreign minister, it marked "a point of no return...
...They do not wish to be part of a grouping that would be barely distinguishable from Western European social democratic parties and a candidate for the Socialist International...
...On the other hand, Socialist Foreign Minister Gianni DeMichelis, while by no means a hawk, was more worried about Italy's image as a reliable ally and urged that some response be speedily made...
...By rebuking Saddam Hussein and Israel in somewhat similar language, Andreotti kept a foot in both stirrups, as the Italians say...
...In preWorld War II France the question was Mourir pour Danzig?—"To die for Danzig...
...It would be up to the Navy to "provide a reinforced presence in the Mediterranean" in the form of two corvettes and one auxiliary ship...
...The open split in the Communist ranks on the floor of the Chamber, unprecedented in the party's history, was a blatant challenge to Occhetto's plan to dissolve the PCI and found another Leftist party with a different name yet to be coined...
...Andreotti could not act as decisively as the circumstances required, he explained, for unlike Margaret Thatcher in Britain, the Italian Prime Minister heads a coalition government...
...In his speech to the Chamber of Deputies he condemned Iraq's "deplorable unilateral actions" and praised the EC's reaction to the annexation of Kuwait...
...Abroad segment of public opinion, crossing partisan lines, is strongly in favor of streamlining legislative procedures and amending the proportional representation system to get rid of splinter parties in Parliament...
...The anti-Casa faction scorns Occhetto's attempt to draw a parallel between the dissolution of the Eastern European Communist parties and theprojected "suicide" oftheir own organization...
...Although Rome's policy struck many as overcautious, Fiat chief Giovanni Agnelli, for one, refused to criticize it...
...in dangerous times one tends to hear the convenient refrain that Italy is not a major power...
...He thus had to be careful about avoiding a possibly dangerous political skirmish, and as long as Italian ships were confined to the Mediterranean he would not have to obtain Parliament's consent...
...forces in the Gulf...
...Singling out not only Italy but also Spain, Portugal and West Germany (whose Constitution bars active military intervention), Tréan reported that they would limit their role in the campaign against Iraq to providing logistical support...
Vol. 73 • September 1990 • No. 11
