Italian Communists ‘Ready For Power’

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31941, 19 March 1969, Page 17

Italian Communists ‘Ready For Power’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BOLOGNA.

The Italian Communist Party, holding its twelfth national congress has the air and self-confidence of a political party which hopes for power, and is ready for it.

Not for many years have Italy’s Communists, the most numerous in the Western world, had so strong a feeling of their key position in the nation’s life, and of political opportunities waiting to be

grasped, writes Alexander Chancellor, a Reuter’s correspondent. The Christian Democrats, who have ruled Italy alone or in coalition almost continuously since World War 11, are split by internal divisions and are in obvious disarray. The Socialist Party, in coalition with the Christian Democrats in the centre-Left Government, is equally divided, and has still not recovered from its heavy setback in the General Election last May. Italy, it is generally admitted, is disillusioned with politics. Many students are in revolt, and the Govern-

ment faces a crisis in the country, and within its own ranks. But though conditions might seem ideal for the Communists they are keenly aware of the obstacles which could yet again frustrate their hopes of power. In his key speech when the congress opened, the 68-year-old party leader, Mr Luigi Longo, took care to , offend none, and to leave ■ every option open. He tried i to strengthen and broaden popular support for his party ■ by offering Italy a new form i of communism—a pluralistic ! society and “democratic • variety”—by reaffirming his

faith in the Constitution and the Parliamentary system, and by offering collaboration with other Left-wing forces, including Roman Catholics. His strategy is to bring his party “out of the ghettos” in which it has long been confined by the Democratic parties, to break the present coalition, and to enter a new Left-wing majority Government.

Conditions for this are better today than for many years. Communist gains in the General Election, when they received more than 8,500,000 votes, have made their isolation from the Government appear to many Italians increasingly undemocratic.

A growing number of Leftwingers in the ruling parties believe a deal with the Communists would be desirable—and the Vatican has helped this process by taking a much less reproachful attitude to them than in the past. Mr Longo knows, however, that the prospects are uncertain. The Christian Democrats, still Italy’s largest single party, have already firmly rejected his suggestion for collaboration in regional government. In addition, there are

many Communists , who oppose the official line, as the congress in Bologna has showed. Extreme Left-win-gers maintain that no collaboration is possible with the Christian Democrats or the Socialists under their leader, Mr Pietro Nenni, the Foreign Minister. The situation is further complicated by international problems. The party has been forced both by popular opinion and the logic of its own line of independent Socialism to oppose the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. Another setback is the illhealth of Mr Longo, himself, who was recently in hospital with a serious blood-circula-tion ailment.

There is wide speculation that he cannot long continue in his present functions. But despite its problems and internal divisions, the Italian Communist Party remains one of the strongest, most united, and best organised political forces in Italy. It has a history of slow but continuous growth in the last few years—from 6,707,706 votes in the 1958 General Election to 8,551,347 last year.

But bound by strong traditional ties with the Soviet Union, it has fought to avoid a definitive break with Russia that would have major repercussions for international Communist unity. There is a widely-held Communist fear that the ambiguities of this position are threatening the party’s “credibility” in Italy. It is also difficult to reconcile the party’s foreign policy—neutrality and withdrawal from N.A.T.O.—with Communist participation in a coalition, when most Christian Democrats and Nenni Socialists are strongly in favour of the American alliance. Another disconcerting development for the Communists has been the upsurge of revolutionary student protest, in which the Communist Party has also come under fire as just another part of the establishment. The Communists want to harness and use these Leftwing forces without losing either their democratic respectability in Italy at large or their chances of getting to power through a deal with I the other parties.