'Communists still follow Moscow’

Press, 31 October 1977, Page 8

'Communists still follow Moscow’

NZPA Rome The former American Secretary of State, Dr Henry Kissinger, has said that the increasingly independent Eurocommunists were still communists and follow Moscow’s lead in foreign policy. Doctor Kissinger, touring Europe to research a National Broadcasting Company television programme on European communism, made the remark in an interview with the Italian television network, R.A.1.-TV.

Earlier in the day, Dr Kissinger met Italian leaders, including the Prime Minister (Mr Giulio Andreotti), whose Christian Democratic minority Government depends for survival on Communist abstentions in Parliamentary votes.

Asked to explain his remark that “in Eurocommunism there is more communism than Europe,” Dr Kissinger said.

“No Communist Party has ever been aemocratically organised. No communist organisation has ever been in contrast with the Soviet Union on foreign policy. There have sometimes been differences with Moscow on the domestic policies of individual countries. “Finally, no Communist Party ever shared power in practice with other parties. These are historical facts that cannot be ignored.” Mr Andreotti’s Government has owed its survival for the past 15 months to indirect support from the West’s largest Communist Party, which gained heavily in the General Election last year. In return, the Communists have won grudging recognition as a force to be consulted in policy making.