Another Government Dissolves

No easy solution is in sight for the Christian Democrats

As expected, Italy's 39th government since the fall of Fascism in 1943 went the way of all the others last week. But nothing demonstrated the changing times and mood more than the manner in which the government fell.

In 1973, Premier Giulio Andreotti, who then headed a center-right coalition made up of his Christian Democrats and the conservative Liberal Party, lost 13 consecutive parliamentary votes before calling it quits. This time Andreotti's 18-month-old government did not so much fall as dissolve. To avoid a showdown vote that would have poisoned the atmosphere and left the parties in a state of political war, he bowed out quietly, imploring his party to exercise "general prudence."

There was good reason for his discretion. The challenge facing Italy is a forceful, intensified demand by the Communists for a direct role in an emergency government that would deal with Italy's mounting economic, labor and law-and-order problems. The Christian Democrats' dilemma: find a compromise that would give the Communists new power in governing Italy, however that role might be disguised, or face the trauma of another early national election that would further polarize the country.

The stage for Andreotti's resignation was set last month with the collapse of the six-party programmatic accord by which the Communists and four other nonruling parties abstained on key votes and thus kept the minority Christian Democratic Cabinet afloat. Three parties, led by the Communists, then demanded formation of a multiparty emergency government. The tiny (four seats) Radical Party, which specializes in goading both the Christian Democrats and the Communists, subsequently called for a parliamentary debate on the government. The Communists passed the word that if Andreotti did not resign first, they would introduce a motion of noconfidence.

Accepting the inevitable, Andreotti last week convened a farewell Cabinet meeting and drove to the Quirinale Palace to tender his resignation to President Giovanni Leone. The President immediately began the time-honored ritual of inviting officials of all parties to the Quirinale for talks. Among them: Communist Party Boss Enrico Berlinguer, Socialist Party Leader Bettino Craxi, Neo-Fascist M.S.I. Chieftain Giorgio Almirante, and two Christian Democratic veterans, Benigno Zaccagnini and Amintore Fanfani. After all that, Leone asked Andreotti to try to form a new government.

There was more than a reasonable doubt as to whether he would succeed. The Christian Democrats have perceptibly stiffened their resistance to an emergency government. Partly as a result of the strong U.S. admonition against allowing Eurocommunists into power, they are more reluctant than ever to join the Communists in a parliamentary majority coalition. Explained one Western diplomat: "The stand of the Americans has encouraged those Christian Democrats who are opposed to any sort of Communist participation in government and made the others stop and think."

High among the fears of Christian Democrats, not to mention Western strategists, was the possible effect on NATO should Communists enter the government. Italian officials denied, however, that the Communists would have access to defense or foreign ministry secrets. Outgoing Minister of Trade and Industry Carlo Donat-Cattin argued that Communists in the government would provoke "very grave" financial and monetary repercussions because foreign capital would be scared off. "I don't want elections either," said Donat-Cattin, "but the biggest political mistake is to turn from hard choices for fear of elections, which are necessary when differences become irreconcilable."

Meanwhile, the Communists stepped up their pressure for a direct governing role. Reason: mounting protests among their rank and file, especially students and trade unionists, against the policy of tacit cooperation with Andreotti. Berlinguer warned that if the Christian Democrats did not provide an acceptable solution to the crisis, an election was not the only alternative: a leftist government could be formed without them. Theoretically, at least, the five parties of the left, combining with the centrist Republicans and Social Democrats, could assemble a slender, ten-vote majority in the Chamber of Deputies. That would exclude the Christian Democrats altogether. Berlinguer insisted there had been no change of policy. But mention of a possible government without the party that has ruled uninterruptedly for 32 years was a departure from his heretofore unwavering doctrine of the "historic compromise"--that is, taking power in an alliance with the Christian Democrats and other parties.

The Christian Democrats' dilemma was essentially the same one that has haunted them since the 1976 general election standoff: they cannot govern with the Communists, because of strong ideological differences, and they cannot govern without them, because of the power the Communists represent. And now Berlinguer's party is demanding full political recognition in return for its support. Even a programmatic majority, by which the Communists might vote yes on agreed points of policy while continuing to abstain on the government's confidence vote, was not going to be enough. "It's a joke," one Communist official remarked. "Everything would remain the way it was before. We would have to swallow more bitter pills than we did in July."

At week's end three possible solutions were being discussed by Andreotti and his colleagues. All involved major concessions to the Communists. One would be a coalition Cabinet composed of Christian Democrats and Republicans, which would rule with the support of the Communists and other parties. A second solution would be a coalition of Christian Democrats and Socialists, who would act as guarantors of leftist interests in the Cabinet and of pro-Western principles in the parliamentary majority, which would include the Communists. Although this approach might be the least offensive to Andreotti's party, because technically the Communist votes would be supplementary and not essential, the hopelessly divided Socialists would not go along at this stage. The third solution, which might be the most acceptable one to the Communists, would be a Christian Democrat minority Cabinet including a number of prestigious technocrats who would act as proxies for the left and give the government something of a nonpartisan cast. But since it would openly depend on the Communists in an unadorned emergency majority without the "cover" of other parties, that solution was least acceptable to the Christian Democrats.

For Italy, it seems clear, the hard political crunch is just beginning--and it is likely to be some time before any political solution becomes reality.

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