Political Crises In Italy

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32350, 16 July 1970, Page 7

Political Crises In Italy

(N.Z.P.A. -neuter— copyright) ROME, July 15. Italians have become so accustomed to changing Governments that the man-in-the-street seems indifferent to whether there is an Administration in Rome or not. Since tbe last General Election in' May, 1968, there have already been four administrations. Each time the Government fell, the warnings of potential disaster became more ominous. Each time the crisis was solved, by compromises between parties which left almost everybody certain that another crisis would follow within a few months.

The latest crisis appears to be one of the most difficult Italy has faced since World War 11. The country’s economic prospects after big wage rises and production cuts caused by months of strikes—also look disturbing. The first apparent consequence of the sudden resignation of Mr Mariano Rumor's Government last week was that life suddenly returned to normal. The strikes and labour unrest that had disrupted Italian life almost without a break since last autumn virtually stopped overnight. A national general strike was called off, and for the first time in weeks all Italy’s principal morning newspapers were on sale. The newspapers spoke gravely of the potential

threat to Italian democracy caused by the Government crisis, and the increasingly disturbing economic situation.

But true or not such warnings have by now become too frequent to make much impression on the ordinary man.

With Italians accustomed to inherently weak coalition Governments, the difference between having one or not seems almost undetectable. Even when a Government has resigned, it remains in office on a caretaker basis until a new one is formed.

The Christian Democrat, Mr Giulio Andreotti, who was appointed Prime Minis-ter-Designate last Saturday, is now trying to form another Centre-Left coalition. Public servants say that life is generally a little calmer during political crises, but otherwise just the same. Major political decisions are not taken, but routine business continues.

The Foreign Ministry carries on its work much as usual and as a new Government is likely to follow much the same foreign policy as the last, continuity is easily preserved.

The most immediately harmful effect of recurrent Government crises is that they delay legislation. Parliament does not meet, except for procedural business, during tbe interregnum. Important reforms, on which all parties may agree, have to be postponed, but debates can be resumed where they left off after the new Government takes office. The angriest people in

Italy at present are the promoters of a divorce bill, which took years to reach Parliament and looked like obtaining final approval from the Senate (Upper House) by the end of this month. Now the sponsors will be lucky if the bill is approved in the autumn. This has even

led the “divorcists” to accuse the Vatican of helping to precipitate the Government crisis in order to keep divorce off the Statute Book. Despite the well-known indifference of Italians to their politicians, there are many observers who believe that the country’s patience is running out and that the yearning for a stable Government is becoming stronger.

One reason for this is that Government inaction has left the country’s State apparatus lagging behind its post-war industrial progress. There is now a widely-felt need for Italy to acquire all the trappings of a modern State, including an efficient health service, better housing, and a reformed legal system.

But although Italians, including politicians, talk enviously about the more stable Western democracies, the difficulties of achieving a similar stability seem almost insoluble to many of them. With the Communists as the only major Opposition party, the majority, of the country appears unprepared to risk an alternative Communist Government, as every post-war election has shown. The biggest party, the Christian Democrats, seems fated to be always in power, but at the same time it is not big enough to have a Parliamentary majority of its own.

This means that the Christian Democrats can only govern through coalitions with other parties, which have widely divergent attitudes on many subjects—a situation which makes for weak, unstable government.