Hanging by a Thread

It seemed a familiar scene. Italy's ruling Christian Democrats were serving up still another new Cabinet to the Chamber of Deputies last week, the country's 39th government since the fall of Fascism. The Premier was Giulio Andreotti, 57, an urbane party regular, a Premier twice before and a minister 16 times over. But there was something new added. For the first time in 28 years, Italy's huge (116 Senators and 228 Deputies) Communist Party had come out of opposition, and it was only on the strength of its abstentions that Andreotti was able to muster a vote of confidence for his fledgling minority government. The tally in the Chamber was 258 for the new government, 44 against and 303 abstentions. "All we have to do is blow, and the government will topple," crowed one top Communist official. "It will be hanging by a thread."

Enduring Crisis. To gain Communist Party sufferance, Andreotti pledged the Christian Democrats to a heady program of reforms. He promised crackdowns on tax evaders as well as terrorists and plumped for several favorite Communist projects: a campaign to create more jobs for young people, more investment in Italy's chronically poor southern regions, and soft loans for new industrial investment. He laid major stress on lifting the country out of its enduring economic crisis, with plans to combat Italy's 22% inflation, 7% unemployment and $15 billion foreign debt. But with so many promises to fulfill, Andreotti conceded that government spending could only be held down, not reduced.

Despite his efforts to please, Andreotti won no bravos from the Communists. Speaking from high among the party benches on the left side of the oak-paneled Chamber of Deputies, Party Leader Enrico Berlinguer wryly characterized the direction of the new government as too "uncertain" to merit anything better than an opposition vote. But since "everyone knows that if we were to vote against it, the government would fall in that instant," he added, "we have decided instead to abstain and let this government commence its activities." Reserving the right to judge the new regime "moment by moment," Berlinguer described his party's position as cooperative but still retaining "something of the claw of opposition."

"He came on like the Sun King," groused Socialist Leader Giacomo Mancini of Berlinguer's political hauteur.

Indeed, the steadily advancing Communists have plenty of recent triumphs to revel in. A week after orthodox Marxist Pietro Ingrao became the first Communist president of the Chamber of Deputies, party members were awarded chairmanships of seven of Parliament's 26 committees, including key finance and budget posts. Then last week, just twelve hours before Berlinguer's condescending acceptance of the Christian Democrat regime, a Communist-sponsored candidate was overwhelmingly elected mayor of Rome. Professor Giulio Carlo Argan, 67, a renowned art historian and an independent elected to the city council on the Communist ticket last June, set a new tone for the Eternal City--and proffered an oh've branch to the edgy Vatican--by quoting both Marx and St. Augustine in his acceptance speech. With that move, the Communists now control all the major city halls on the Italian mainland.

However Marxist the Italian government may eventually become, the Communists presently seem intent on making it at least look even more bourgeois than usual. One of Ingrao's first acts as president of the Chamber of Deputies was to order the house officers to enforce a sometimes ignored rule on the parliamentary floor: all members must wear neckties.

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