Italian Communists poll poorly

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 10

Italian Communists poll poorly

NZPA-AP Rome Italians have checked a strong Communist challenge, giving confidence to the five party coalition of the Socialist Prime Minister, Mr Bettino Craxi, in regional elections, nearly 90 per cent of the returns showed yesterday. The poll for regional, local and provincial Governments had been billed by all main parties as a key test which would have a direct bearing on the future of the Italian Government. “I am satisfied with how the elections went,” Mr Craxi said. The vote introduced “a factor of stalsity

in Italian political life,” he said. The Communist Party Secretary, Alessandro Natta, said that he was “dissatisfied” with his party’s showing but it “would continue the struggle” to be a governing party. The Communists, with a renewed demand for a share of power in the Government, had waged a campaign to score another “sorpasso” (overtaking) of the Christian Democrats, the largest party in Italy and a partner in the coalition. With 62,011 of the 70,519 election districts having re-

ported results, the Communists, Italy’s second largest political force, were trailing the Christian Democrats about four points. The results showed the five parties in the coalition winning 57.5 per cent of the vote, with the Communists getting 30.8 per cent. The Christian Democrats, who have dominated all of Italy’s post-war Governments, received 34.7 per cent, up from 33 per cent in the 1984 European Parliament election, and Mr Craxi’s Socialists got 13.1 per cent, up from 11.3 per cent in 1984. Th§. total of the five par-

ties would represent an increase from 53.9 per cent in the 1984 election and 56.2 per cent in the 1983 Parliamentary vote but a decrease from 60.2 per cent in the previous regional election in 1980. In the 1984 European vote, the Communists for the first time outpolled the Christian Democrats, winning 33.3 per cent to 33 per cent for the Christian Democrats. The Communists received 31.2 per cent in 1983 balloting and 31.5 per cent in 1980, while the Christian Democrats got 36.8 per cent in election. « .