Rome talks failure may lead to Communist Govt

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 15

Rome talks failure may lead to Communist Govt

Z.P .4 -Reuter—Copyright} ROME, April 16.

Italy today faced the prospect of General Elections in .lune which could bring West ELurope’s first Communist-led government to power.

The last hope of avoiding the elections vanished yesterday when the Socialist Party, which underpins the minority Government of the Prime Minister (Mr Moro), rejected lastminute compromise proposals from the ruling Christian Democrats and called for a vote in June.

Political observers here | said only an eleventh-hour: change of mind by the; Socialists could avoid elec-j tions. formally calling i for them, the Socialists had; effectively dissolved Mr| Moros Parliamentary base. | and he wm-'d sooner or later!

have to resign. Later ratner than sooner] seemed to be Mr Moro’s] reply. The Cabinet met last! night and did not officially I discuss the Socialist stand. The secretary of the! Christian Democrat Party! (Mr B. Zaccagnini) said he! intended to carry on with! consultations to sound out' the views of other parties, i including r he Communists,! on emergency problems fac-i ing the country . This course has already! been described by the! Socialists as doomed to fail-i ure. The Communist Party! daily newspaper “L’Unita”] dismissed the proposals as; “tardy and ambiguous.” Election demand The Christiat. Democrats appeared to be playing for time so as to manoeuvre the Left into the extreme position of causing the collapse of the Government.] and thus taking the blame l for forcing early elections. The Socialists, in demand- ■ ing elections yesterday, said] this was preferable to a continuation of the political and j economic crisis. ’

I Mr Zaccagnini last night; Telephoned the Socialist’s) secretary’, Francesco de Mar-1 ; lino, to try to mase him! change his mind. ' This is a serious propo-! sal.” he was quoted as say-! ing. The answer was still no, I :replied Mr de Martino. The Socialists and Com-i ■ munists had called for a | common government platIform as the only alternative ,to elections. The Christian j Democrats plan for limited consultations fell well short lof this and was rejected by i the Socialists as tantamount •to a refusal of thei terms. The Communist leadership jwill meet tomorrow to coni sider the situation. The next i major development in tne | crisis is not likely until next ; Tuesday, when Parliament ; returns after the Easter •break. : Mr Moro’s Government, ’the thirty-eighth since the ; fall of Fascism in 1943, has I reiied on the Socialists abstaining in Parliament in order to survive. The Socialists now obviously intend to (become the Opposition. A public opinion poll pub-! ;fished yesterday indicated • the Communists would ! emerge as the strongest I party in Rome, if elections iwere held immediately. ] The poll, taken from a • small sample of 200 Rome- ; area voters, showed Christian Democrat support as less than half what it was in the 1972 General Election.

The political weekly news- . paper. “Panorama,” which r commissioned the poll did > not claim the survey was an ; accurate forecast of national trends, but said it should give a general indication si Asked what party they [ would vote for in immediate ■ ■ General Elections, 22.8 per 11 cent said Communist, 18.9 - per cent Socialist, and only! I 15.1 per cent replied Chris-I 'tian Democrat.

This compared with ai Communist vote of 26.7 perl cent for Rome in the la t| General Elections in 1972. when the Socialist vole was 7.5 per cent and the Chris-] tian Democrats got 30.9 per cent. It found that a majority of 55.9 per cent believed that the Communists should participate in the next Government. Abortion referendum The Italian Government recommended last night to set June 13 as the date for a national referendum to allow abortion on demand, the Association Press reported. Abortion. which is at present considered a crime, has been a major political issue in Italy, pitting Mr Moro’s Church-backed Christian Democrats against all other Parliamentary parties. Women's liberation groups and Left-wing extremists have collected over 500.0(H) [signatures required by law to seek a referendum. The (Government was therefore I forced to set a date for the I vote, which President Leone [was expected to rubber stamp. The referendum can be postponed if Parliament is dissolved, and cancelled if Parliament votes to modify present abortion laws. Lengthy negotiations between Mr Moro’s party and abortion backers have failed to produce an agreement in Parliament on a new law.