PARTY CHANGE IN ITALY

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27064, 12 June 1953, Page 9

PARTY CHANGE IN ITALY

Government’s Hold Weakened (N.Z. Press Association-Copyright) ;(Rec. 11.20 p.m.) ROME, June 11. Opposition parties will gather in secret conclaves today to decide how to exploit their increased power in the Italian Parliament. The Communists and the Neo-Fascists were both jubilant over their General Election gains which have reduced the c t (Mr De Gasperi)* on both the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The immediate objective of both the Right and the Left opposition was to attempt to follow up their election successes by toppling the coalition led by the Christian Democrat Party, headed by Mr De Gasperi, whose majority over the combined opposition m the Chamber of Deputies is down to a slim 16. Extremists predicted triumphantly today that Mr De Gasper! could not govern unless he extended his centre Coalition Government, and both sides were ready to admit that the probability was for a Government trend to the Right.

• troubles of Mr De Gasperi. who is 72, are increased because his alliance includes splinter groups which CO rum him by a minor defection. Trie two main parties in the Centre group are his own Christian Democrats, the Right-Wing Socialists, the Liberals and the Republicans, but it also contains tiny factions like the Action Party from Sardinia and the South Tyrolean People’s Party from Northern Italy. circles thought it likely that the Brune Minister would have to lean heavily on the Monarchists for ?H,rviyal. The Monarchists have won 1,856,661 votes, more than double the total in the 1948 elections. .The Monarchists and the Neo-Fas-cists together showed the biggest gain •—more than 2,000.000 votes over the 1948 total to give them 3,437,056, or 12.8 per cent. The Monarchists won 40 seats in the Chamber of Deputies compared with the 14 they held previously, while the Neo-Fascists increased their representation from six to 29.

The Christian Democrats will have 262 seats compared with the 305 they held before. Allied parties won 41, to give the centre a total of 309, a decline of 68. The Communists and the Left-wing Socialists also returned strengthened, with 218 seats, compared with the 183 they held previously. Mr de Gasperi’s present Cabinet consists of 16 of his own Christian Democrats and two Republicans. He will probably include members of other Centre parties—the Social Democrats and the Liberals—in his new Cabinet. One-third on the Left The popular vote shows that after eight years of democratic government, during which Italy has received hundreds of millions of American aid dollars, the Left Wing has the backing of more than one-third of the Electors. The Left-wingers—the Communists, the Socialists and the Left Independents—registered 9,562,860 votes (35 per cent, of the total) and more than 1,000,000 mope than they secured in the 1948 elections. The Centre coalition dropped more than 2,000,000 on its 1948 figure to 13,487,038, which is 49.8 per cent. Monarchists Blamed Mr. de Gasperi last night blamed the Monarchists for the Coalition’s weakened position and for the strengthened extreme Left-wing. In an interview with the influential pro-Government newspaper “Il Messagero” he said that while “irresponsible gentlemen (the Monarchists) talk of saving the monarchy, they are placing the nation in peril.” “All through our election, v he said, “we raised our voices against the Communist peril, but blind ignorance answered: ‘lt isn’t true —that is just a clerical scarecrow.* “The meanness and the egotistical ambitions of the bourgeoisie—the bourgeoisie which divides us—is responsible.” Voting Paper Dispute The Home Miniver (Mr Mario Scelba) announced today that 1,300,000 voting papers had been challenged, mostly by the Communists, and would be sifted, out by the new Chamber of Deputies. The dispute has kindled a dangerously tense situation. None of the challenged votes has been counted in the election results, and 78 of the newly-elected Opposition Deputies are liable to be unseated. If Mr de Gasperi can secure 57,000 more votes, they would give him more than 50 per cent, of the popular vote —and by a law rushed through just before the elections, he would have power to reconstitute the Chamber of Deputies, taking two-thirds of the seats for his coalition.