A Compromise Fails, a Showdown Looms

After a long Easter weekend that gave Italians a brief respite from their unending political crisis, millions of people, including most of the country's politicians, piled into Fiats last week and inched along traffic-choked roads leading from the seashore or mountains back to the cities. When they finally reached home, they found that the political situation had deteriorated even further. The main political parties were unable to agree on a common program to deal with the country's deteriorating economy. There were new incidents of urban terrorism and still more charges of corruption leveled against the top political leadership. The latest events could only harm the teetering Christian Democratic government of Premier Aldo Moro and increase the chances that the Communists--for the first time since 1948 --could soon have a formal role in the national government.

Disturbing Prospect. The big question of the week: would there be a dissolution of Parliament and early elections? If so, the results of the vote could give the powerful Communist Party a major role in whatever new government was formed, even Cabinet-level positions. In order to forestall that disturbing prospect, the Christian Democrats, led by Party Secretary Benigno Zaccagnini, had devised a scheme. They would push the idea of limited consultations between the parties--including the Communists--to agree on a common economic policy. Such a plan would avoid the need for early elections and provide a convenient way to gain the support of the Communists for economic measures without actually admitting them into the governing majority--an expedient "mini-compromise," as the plan is called in Italy.

One day, Zaccagnini holed up with burly Socialist Leader Francesco de Martino. Emerging from the Christian Democrats' parliamentary offices after three hours, De Martino would only say: "There is something new in the C.D. proposals, but differences still remain." The Socialists, fearful of being squeezed into impotence by informal agreement between the Christian Democrats and the Communists, nonetheless continued to push for early elections.

The Communists were initially more receptive to Zaccagnini's efforts--mainly because they prefer an informal accommodation with the Christian Democrats to an attempt, during the current crisis, to wield power formally. But of late matters have become more complicated. The Christian Democrats' election two weeks ago of former Premier Amintore Fanfani (an uncompromising antiCommunist) as president of the party's national council deeply angered the Communists. "We proposed our own broad 'political accord' on all major issues for the duration of this legislature," explained Giorgio Napolitano, a leading Communist, "but the Christian Democrats said yes to Mr. Fanfani and no to us." Zaccagnini and Communist Leader Enrico Berlinguer, after a summit meeting last week, were unable to reach an accommodation. Finally, after two full days of heated wrangling, the Christian Democrats decided to ask for a showdown confidence vote in Parliament this week. That was tantamount to admitting that the only recourse was early elections.

Meanwhile, a new scandal burst upon the Christian Democrats. A U.S. Senate Committee report on the Lockheed affair was delivered to the Italian Parliament and sensational--and still unsubstantiated--portions were leaked to the press. Apparently, Lockheed had made payoffs through an Italian official code-named "Antelope Cobbler," an Italian Premier who held office some time between 1965 and 1969. Unfortunately for the Christian Democrats, the men who served as Premier in that period were none other than Premier Aldo Moro, present President Giovanni Leone and current Foreign Minister Mariano Rumor--the three top officials in the country. All heatedly denied any involvement with Lockheed. Nonetheless, the charges were likely to erode further public confidence in the Christian Democratic Party.

Daylight Assault. Punctuating all the politicking, terrorism was on the increase. Though vigilante squads formed by the Communist labor unions seemed to have halted the arson incidents that have plagued such northern industrial cities as Milan and Turin, the situation took an ugly turn in Rome. Giovanni Theodoli, the head of Chevron Oil Italiana and president of the country's petroleum association, was attacked in his car by a young man and a woman and shot eight times in the legs and a hand. Theodoli survived, but the brazen daylight assault, by a group calling itself the "Armed Communist Formations," sent a shiver of fear through the Italian business community.

Ironically, the heightened fears of extremist-provoked disorders will probably further damage the stature of the Christian Democrats, who seem unable to stem Italy's continuing slide into chaos. Inevitably, that means that ever larger numbers of Italians will look to the effective, disciplined Communist Party as the only force capable of ending the country's crisis.

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