Crisis talks in Italy

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34129, 15 April 1976, Page 13

Crisis talks in Italy

(N Z. Press Assn —Copyright) ROME, April 14. Italy’s ruling Christian Democratic Party, its image tarnished and its power slipping, is holding a crucial meeting today, perhaps to decide the fate of Mr Aldo Mooro’s two-month-old Government, which has been buffeted by the country’s severe financial crisis and by a determined Communist drive for a role in Government decision. On the eve of the party’s

national committee meeting, a Cabinet member proposed a programme of national economic emergency which would placate the Communists but still leave them out of the Cabinet. The Minister of Agriculture (Mr Giovanni Marcora), a Left-of-Centre Christian Democrat, said that his proposal might well be a way of avoiding an early General Election — in which Communist gains are feared at the expense of the Christian Democrats. Now polling a third of the votes and only two percentage points behind the Christian Democrats, the Communists have temporarily shelved their bid — they called it “historic compro-

imise” — for a formal entry I into the Government, considering it inopportune in [the life of this Parliament, which has a year to rule. Instead, the Communists demand an -entente with the Christian Democrats — a role in national decisions without necessarily holding Cabinet portfolios. The entente bid, formulated by the partv’s secretarygeneral, Mr Enrico Berlinguer, and repeated by other leaders last night, had been turned down by the Christian Democrats: Christian Democrat leaders are said to he opposed to any accommodation with the Communist Party, although Mr Berlinguer maintains that he is a Euro-Communist without bondage to the Kremlin. The third-largest party, the Socialist Party, and the small but pivotal Reoublican Party, have welcomed the] entente idea, suggesting that the only alternative would bej an earlv election. which would retard the austerity measures necessarv to combat the collapse of the country’s economy. If there were an election soon, it would hit the Church backed Christian Democrat Partv at its lowest ebb. shackled as it is by nay-off scandals from the oil companies, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Lockhed Aircraft Corporation. The party’s voting strength, nearly 50 per cent-less than it was 30 years ago, slipped to 35 per cent in nation-wide regional elections last June. The Communists, on the other hand, have gained in every election, creening up to 33 per cent by June. The] party has made much hav out ' of the pay-off scandals, claiming that its hands are clean and that its coffers not filled with Kremlin rubles. Local-election gains in June enabled the Communist Party to obtain governing roles in local cities ranging from Naples to Milan, and from Turin to Venice. Now

Rome and Palermo are ! the only main cities outside the Communists’ grasp. I The Vatican, meanwhile, I fearing that Rome, the centre [of Roman Catholicism and the See of the Popes, may fall to Communism in a city election this June, has renewed its firm anti-Communist stand through a commentary in its daily newspaper, “L’Osservatore Romano.” “A Christian cannot be a Marxist,” it said yesterday. ! asserting the theoretical and 'practical irrecencilability between Christianity and Marxism. Everest bid A joint British-Nepalese Army expedition has established its camp No. 1 in preparation for an assault on Mount Everest. A radio message received in Katmandu says that the camp is at 19.500 ft, the expedition having crossed the Khumbu icefall in its bid to conquer the world’s highest peak,. — Katimandu.