HOSTAGE TO MISFORTUNE CRIME AND POLITICS STILL DISEASE IN ITALIAN LIFE

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33791, 13 March 1975, Page 16

HOSTAGE TO MISFORTUNE CRIME AND POLITICS STILL DISEASE IN ITALIAN LIFE

(By

MARK ARNOID-FORSTER

in the "Guardian.")

I Reprinted by arrangement)

If the English disease is industrial unrest the Italian one is violent crime and a political system which, the more it changes, the more it remains the same. Kidnapping — of pictures as well as persons — j s Italy’s fastest-growing industry. The Christian Democratic Party, with a 38 per cent mandate at the last election, has been in office continuously since 1943, a European record for political longevity surpassed onlv bv General Franco.

The combination of oneparty political dominance With lawlessness may or may not be significant. But the lawlessness is real. Kidnapping has increased by 352 per cent since 1969 and there were 217 cases last year. Armed robbery increased by 199 per cent and obviously paid. Only 4 per cent of all cases of theft ended in successful prosecutions.

Facing up to the statistics on January 20 the Christian Democrats’ general secretary Mr Fanfani, called for a national drive to restore law and order. Coming from the dominant figure in a party which has been mainly responsible for law and order for 32 years the appeal’s effect was less than galvanic. The crime wave continued.

Since January 20 a five-year-old boy has been kidnapped in Turin and a nine-year-old in Catania, a worker-priest has been stabbed (probably for knowing too much), thieves have robbed a train of £70,000 near Novara, a bank of £35,000 in Milan, and an art gallery in Urbino of a Raphael arid a Pierra della Francesca described as priceless. Meanwhile, in two daring gaolbreaks, 10 prisoners accused of violent crimes escaped to resume work refreshed, as it were, and Renate Curcio, alleged chief of a terrorist organisation, was freed by his wife who threatened his warders with a sub-machine-gun. If the response to Mr Fanfani’s appeal has been poor the reason has to be that the Government is too weak to command a hearing and too corrupt to inspire. Many Italians believe that several Ministers would be loth to lose their Parliamentary immunity. As in many other countries from Northern Ireland to South Vietnam the domination of government by one party for several decades has bred corruption in public life coupled with administrative feebleness. Feathering nests Money that should have been spent on law enforcement or housing is actually spent on feathering nests. Officials who ought to have been chosen for their efficiency actually owe their jobs to kinship with a prominent Christian Democrat. The system perpetuates itself and the condition of the people gets worse. It gets worse also because of the international economic crisis. Like the rest of Europe; Italy has been badly affected by the increase in the price of oil, especially so because there is no Italian coal. The balance of payments deficit yawns ever wider. The rate of inflation is 25 per cent per year. Faced with trouble on this scale most peoples would talk themselves into a state of revolt, demand a government of national unity, or scan the political skies for a Churchillian (or Mussolinilike) figure to rescue the country. In Italy, however, there exists a national genius for doing without government (and for doing without post-

| men. dustmen, trains, and a I whole host of other public I services which seem essenl rial to most people but not to Italians). This does not mean, however. that Italians are indifferent to their fate, still less that they are idle or that they lack ingenuity. It is merely that the political solution to their national problems eludes them. A public opinion poll i taken in December showed that 65 per cent of Italians (had no suggestions to make for resolving their country’s [political problem. This is [perhaps natural in a nation ! which has only felt united twice — once under Mazzini and again under Mussolini. Essentially the Italian problem is the failure of the Christian Democrats and their minority allies on the Left to govern Italy and in particular their failure to ensure law and order on the one hand and social justice on the other. The solution on offer is a coalition between the Christian Democrats and the Communists. At the last election the Communists won 30 per cent of the popular vote to the Christian Democrats’ 38 per cent. If the public opinion polls are even vaguely right this gap must now have narrowed and may have disappeared, now that Italians can vote at 18. The Communist offer is to join the Christian Democrats in a national campaign to set Italy to rights. Communists’ claim Ever since the Czechoslovakian Communists ousted the Social Democrats from the Government in 1948 (and murdered Jan Masaryk as well), coalitions with Communists have aroused the deep suspicion of other parties. The Italian Communists claim to be different. In support of their claim they can point to a policy which favours continued Italian membership of N.A.T.O. (because, in an imperfect world, N.A.T.O. and the Warsaw Pact have to maintain a military balance) and to a long, proud, and honest record in regional and local government in the north.

Nor do they want to nationalise anything, which is not surprising seeing that the Christian Democrats have already nationalised so much of Italian industry.

Mr Guido Fanti, the Communist president of the Emilia-Romagna Region, heads an elected government which is generally acknowledged to be one of the most efficient and least corrupt in Italy. He told me that the “key noint of any Italian problem is that the Government cannot cope with any of the difficulties that have arisen from the oil crisis.” He blamed this on a kind of national administrative

i sclerosis and on the fact : that the other parties used I public money not for int vestment, as the Communists did. but "as an in- • strument for political activi- ■ ties.” Asked whether he i meant bribes Mr Fanti onlv . smiled. 1 The Communists are not alone in accusing the Christian Democrats of bribery [Nor are they alone in their I complaint that the national I Government in Rome has i atrophied. All the regional ■ governments, not just the (Communist ones, have nut i P ro P’? sa l s to the Government tor the regeneration of the I economy at a time of oil i shortage. “For example,” Mr Fanti said, ‘ we have proposed that : j Government should order 30,000 buses over the next five years. These would ibe distributed through the regions. The Fiat company, which is in such trouble would be helped. But although the proposals were made one year ago there has been no answer yet from the Government.” Frosty answer There has been no answer either to the Communists’ proposal for a coalition, except a frosty one. A coalition between Communists and Christian Democrats formed to try to rescue Venice from sinking into the sea, was recently broken up on orders from Mr Fanfani m Rome. At their recent National Council meeting the Christian Democrats hierarchy again rejected the coalition proposal formally on the general ground that the Communists were their enemies and that they would lose electoral support by being seen talking to them. The last reason could be a good one. In the past, when the Catholic Church had more political influence than it enjoys today, the Christian Democrats owed much of their support to their anti-communism. They now face important regional elections in the summer and were no doubt moved by the fear of losing votes. The oil crisis, the crime wave, and now Mr Fanfani’s loud public quarrel with his party’s youth section have not at all improved the party’s chances in June. If the present Government falls — and the post-war track record gives it a life-ex-pectancy of 15 months — a coalition with the Communists might be the only alternative to some form of coup from the Right.

An attempted coup from the Right, the Christian Democrats told me, would be the only situation in which coalition with the Communists would be acceptable. If this is true the state of Italy may have to get worse before it gets better.