"It Isn't Easy"

In a private talk recently, Italy's President Giovanni Gronchi once again urged his old friend, Left-Wing Socialist Leader Pietro Nenni, to break with the Communists. Sadly Nenni replied: "That's exactly what I'm trying to do. But it isn't easy, Dio mio, it isn't easy." Last week, for the first time in ten years, Nenni broke with the public Communist line on a fundamental policy issue. European unity. But Dio mio, it wasn't easy.

At a closed meeting of the 74-man Socialist central committee, Nenni urged that the party support the European Common Market and Euratom treaty (already ratified by France and West Germany). "We cannot compromise the historic prospects for Europe,'' argued Nenni. Pro-Communist leaders complained that this would reinforce "the aggressive North Atlantic military bloc." After a tough three-day battle Nenni accepted a compromise solution by which his Socialists would vote in Parliament for Euratom, but abstain on the Common Market. When proCommunists still insisted on voting against both treaties, Nenni threatened to resign. With elections coming up next year and no leader of his Stalin Prizewinning stature in sight, the leftist Socialists approved Nenni's handwritten resolution, 59 to 13. This proves, said Nenni, that the "Socialist Party is completely separated from the Communists." Almost everyone else in Italy was willing to wait for more conclusive proof.

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