The Blackshirts' Revenge

Ever since the day his old schoolmate, Socialist Benito Mussolini, became a Blackshirt, 69-year-old Lawyer Adone Zoli has been one of Italy's most outspoken antiFascists. Last week, with the Duce long gone and Zoli about to win confirmation as Italy's eighth Premier, the Fascists finally got their revenge.

Zoli's problem was to put together a government without the support of the three small parties that have helped keep Christian Democratic Premiers in office since 1953. The only bloc from which he might reasonably hope to win support was the right--the Monarchists and neoFascists. The problem was to get their votes without asking. "Dividing us," Zoli told the Monarchists in mild disapproval, "is your hope--your hopeless hope--of a monarchy." With the neo-Fascists the Florentine was harsher. Said he: "I do not seek your votes. I have never sought them. I shall never seek them."

Salutes & a Shift. As Zoli had calculated, the Fascists and Monarchists were too eager to get back into political grace to be put off by his avowals of philosophical hostility. But when 17 Monarchists and Fascists helped him win a 132-93 vote of confidence in Italy's Senate, the whole nation rang with outrage. In the halls of Parliament, other Deputies mockingly greeted Christian Democrats with a stiff-armed Fascist salute. From the industrial north came frantic warnings that acceptance of Fascist support was sure to cost the Christian Democrats dear in next year's general election.

Left to himself, Zoli might have accepted the Fascist votes ("I think I can ride a horse without becoming one"), but as the protests increased he hastily shifted tactics. Shortly before the Chamber of Deputies was to pass final verdict on his government, he announced: "No matter what the results of the voting are, I shall subtract from the total the votes of the Fascists. Then if I remain short of the required majority I shall resign."

The Careless Tellers. Even in the face of this, 24 Fascist Deputies gave Zoli their support. So did 280 Christian Democrats and Monarchists and one crucial independent--enough, according to the official count, to give Zoli a one-vote majority without the Fascists. Zoli and his ministers prepared to settle comfortably into office. Then, less than 24 hours after the Chamber vote, parliamentary tellers announced that they had carelessly counted as abstainers two Deputies who had actually voted against Zoli. If he continued to spurn Fascist support, anti-Fascist Adone Zoli appeared to be one vote short of a majority. Jeered the Fascist Il Secolo d'ltalia: "Now he must resign because of the Fascist vote--how humiliating--or continue to govern because of the Fascist vote--how shameful!"

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