ITALIAN ELECTION

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26748, 17 April 1948, Page 7

ITALIAN ELECTION

POLLING TO-MORROW VOTE AGAINST COMMUNISM FORECAST STRONG WESTERN INFLUENCE N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent Rec. 9.30 p.m. LONDON, Apl. 16. All reports from correspondents in Italy have continued during the past week to forecast that the Italians will return the Christian Democrats to power in the general elections on Sunday, and that the country will stay within the Western European sphere of influence. “ There is every sign that the Christian Democrats will win by a comfortable margin,” says the Rome correspondent of the Daily Telegraph. “It is unlikely that the iron curtain will clang down this time,” says the News Chronicle’s correspondent. “ Recent events in Czechoslovakia, including the death of Mr Jan Masaryk, and in Trieste, have not helped the Socialist-Communist bloc.” Discussing the general situation, the correspondent of the Daily Telegraph says:— “ Italy’s political frustration, which has lasted for a quarter of a century, reaches a fresh climax on Sunday when only the minority of the 28,000,000 electors will vote for what they want. The majority —and there is now no doubt that it will be the majority—will vote something they do not want— Communism. “Each of the anti-Communist parties has a positive policy; each has at least a handful of enthusiasts. But it is not upon enthusiasm for a positive policy that they now rely for support. Their election propaganda has been predominantly negative. From the platform and hoarding each proclaims: ‘Vote for us and escape Communism.’ “ The Left has a policy simple and clear: ‘Land for the peasants and higher pay, and factory control for workers.’ Though many are shrewd enough to doubt that Communism really means these things, they are powerful slogans in a country where the rural and industrial masses are wretchedly poor. “ Behind the Christian Democrats, led by the present Prime Minister, Signor Alcide de Gasperi, is the moral influence of the Church. Working for this party, and in varying degrees for all other anti-Communist parties, are the Marshall Plan, the Western Powers gesture on Trieste, and their championship of Italy’s admission to the United Nations.

“The overwhelming argument, however, is fear—a hungry people’s fear of losing American bread; a possessive people’s fear of losing what property they have or hope to have; a proud people’s fear of Russian domination; a weary people's fear of fresh tumults. , , ... “ This negative character .of the contest defeats any attempt at a detailed forecast of the result. The most that can be said with confidence is that the Christian Democrats will obtain the largest number of, votes. The next will be the Popular Democratic Front, an alliance of Communists and Left Wing Socialists, dominated by the former. The rest will be very far behirid.” The correspondent of the News Chronicle says that women being 54 per cent, of the electorate, hold the balance. “The 75,000 parish priests are trying to influence them. The Church has issued its veto. But Communist husbands and the threat of famine in Communist Italy are more important arguments for thousands of home-keepers. “ The Communists.” says the correspondent, “tell the farmers, especially those in the south, that the Marshall Plan will cut the profit from their crops—which are expected to establish records this year. But the cunning villagers, whose children wear snappy American outfits, do not really believe that. Country folk in the rich north have made money and want to safeguard it.”