Charmed Life

Spadolini passes a test

Only hours after he had been sworn into office last week, Prime Minister Giovanni Spadolini abruptly encountered his first test in the uses of power. Angry labor leaders were threatening to paralyze the country with a general strike if the Italian industrialists' association unilaterally broke a six-year-old agreement linking wage increases to the official inflation rate. Both sides were adamant; a clash seemed inevitable. Spadolini spent the night threatening and cajoling until the industrialists' association, Confindustria, agreed to meet again with the government and the unions to discuss all aspects of rising labor costs. "I'm still only a baby, but I'm not afraid of falling down," said Spadolini. "The right way to conserve power is to exercise it." It was an auspicious start for the bachelor, 56, leader of the small Republican Party and the first non-Christian Democrat since the war to head an Italian government.

For the moment at least, Spadolini appeared to be leading a charmed political life as the only alternative to new parliamentary elections that none of the bigger parties want. Tainted by the murky P2 Masonic Lodge scandal, the nation's biggest party, the Christian Democrats, were unacceptable to Socialist Leader Bettino Craxi, whose party made spectacular gains last month in local elections across the country. For their part, the Christian Democrats would have refused to participate in any government headed by the ambitious Craxi. Under the circumstances, President Sandro Pertini wisely turned to Spadolini, a former political science professor and journalist with high intelligence, a well-known capacity for work and an impressive record as an administrator.

Although Spadolini personally represents political change, his government turned out to be more of the same. Out of his 27-member Cabinet, there are 15 Christian Democrats, and they hold the key posts of Foreign Affairs, Interior, Justice, Treasury and Industry. Moreover, Spadolini this week presents a program to parliament much like that of his predecessor, Arnaldo Forlani. In fact, the Italian economy is so dangerously out of control that any government would have few alternatives.

Spadolini has inherited an inflation rate that is running at 20% annually for the second consecutive year, high and rising labor costs and a crippling budget deficit of about $45 billion this year. Until now a succession of weak coalition governments have found it politically impossible to push through cuts in government spending or to halt the inflationary system of indexing wages to price increases. It is now Spadolini's turn to try, but he is not expected to fare much better.

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