Cautious Marriage

After years of discussion, Italy's apertura a sinistra ("opening to the left") last week became a risky reality. In effect, the Christian Democratic Party shed some of its right-wing allies in parliament and went into partnership with Pietro Nenni's left-wing Socialists, who had long been working closely with the Communists. Chief architect of the experiment is shrewd, scholarly Premier Amintore Fanfani, who believes that only through the Nenni alliance can he muster the votes needed for necessary domestic reforms (TIME, Feb. 9). But many left-wingers predict gloomily that Nenni will become a hostage of the right, while conservatives fear that Fanfani will become a hostage of the left. Rome's coffeehouse commentators accurately described the Fanfani-Nenni coalition as a canto connubio--a cautious marriage.

Immediate Goals. Retaining his post as head of the new government, post-war Italy's 23rd, Fanfani reshuffled his previous Cabinet to eliminate Christian Democrats who opposed the controversial apertura. Leading absentee, ex-Interior Minister Mario Scelba, whose steel-helmeted riot police put down many a Red demonstration. Three seats, including the Ministry of the Treasury, went to Giuseppe Saragat's anti-Communist Social Democrats; moderate leftist Republicans received two portfolios, including the important Ministry of the Budget, which is responsible for long-range economic planning. To balance the shift leftward in domestic affairs, Fanfani kept on notable Christian Democrats in sensitive external affairs posts--moderate Foreign Minister Antonio Segni, a strong Common Market supporter, and rightist Defense Minister Giulio Andreotti, who is pro-NATO. The Nenni Socialists got no Cabinet jobs, but agreed to vote in parliament for government proposals they approve, abstain on proposals they dislike. With Nenni Socialist backing, Fanfani's new regime could count on 386 out of 595 voting members of the Chamber of Deputies.

The immediate goals of the new partnership generated no great debate: a $500 million crash school-building program to provide 200,000 classrooms for state schools; nationalization of the private power industry, one of Italy's less urgent economic necessities. Other proposals include tax reform, easier agricultural credit facilities, antitrust legislation.

Waiting Games. One plank of the center-left platform caused considerable misgiving: a plan to create 15 regional governments with autonomy in such matters as roadbuilding, vocational education, control of local police. Four such regions* were formed years ago, but since then the scheme was shelved by the Christian Democrats, who feared that Communists, alone or allied with the Nenni Socialists, would build up powerful grass-roots political machines. Giovanni Malagodi, leader of the free-enterprising Liberals, who were dropped from Fanfani's coalition, warned that the rearrangement would make possible "a federation of little Red republics" in such Communist strongholds as Umbria, Tuscany and Emilia.

Though the regional plan will not be carried out for at least two years, the project is one reason why Communist Party Boss Palmiro Togliatti heartily endorsed Fanfani's opening to the left. There are other reasons: the Communists are already claiming credit for the reforms planned by the center-left coalition on the ground that Red pressure forced the pace. Since Stalin Peace Prizewinner Nenni is now a respectable ally of the government, Communism itself may gradually appear less baleful. In short, Togliatti is playing a waiting game, and has denounced those Communists who oppose his strategy as "maximal nihilists."

Fanfani, meanwhile, is playing his own waiting game. As he sees it, the opening to the left for the Christian Democrats is also an opening to the right for the Socialists. The move has broken up a 15-year-old parliamentary alliance between the Communists and the Socialists, and he hopes that Nenni's participation in shaping government policy will break similar pacts with the Reds in thousands of local governments and trade unions. The aim of his administration, Fanfani said last week, is not only "to pursue the most forceful defense of Italian democracy against any totalitarian encroachment, but to win for it a broader popular support.''

*Sicily, Sardinia, Trentino-Alto Adige (South Tyrol), Val d'Aosta.

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