Communists Control Sicily

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28973, 14 August 1959, Page 11

Communists Control Sicily

(N.Z Press Association— Copyright) (Rec. 9 p.m.) PALERMO (Sicily), Aug. 13. A second region of Italy came under Communist-backed rule last night with the election of a new Regional Government in Sicily.

Eight new Ministers, and four SubstituteMinisters, were elected by the 90 deputies of the Regional Government in Palermo in voting which ended tonight to rule the semiautonomous island for the next four years.

At least 11 of the 12 new officials are supporters of the Com-munist-backed Sicilian Premier, Silvio Milazzo, a former Christian Democrat farmer who was elected Premier on July 28. Milazzo rebelled against his party last year because it was “not doing enough for Sicily.” His break away drove Italy's ruling Christian Democrats into opposition in Sicily for the first time. Milazzo’s success was confirmed in Sicilian regional elections two months ago. The Christian Democrats, who have run the Italian National Government uninterruptedly since the war, were ousted from power in Aosta Valley, another of Italy’s 19 semi-autonomous regions, after elections last May. The party’s defeat in the two regions came in spite of a Vatican warning to voters that support of Communist-backed candidates was “sinful.”