ITALY: Long Road

Premier Mario Scelba's government got moving last week on two of the major areas where it had promised action:

¶ As a first step in his crackdown on Italian Communism (TIME, March 29), which includes cleaning the Reds out of moviemaking and other strongholds, Scelba announced that as of mid-April, Communist and fellow-traveling organizations will have to get out of government-owned facilities or face eviction proceedings. The Communists, for example, print their official newspaper, L'Unità, in a government-controlled printing plant. Pietro Nenni's Red-affiliated Socialists were the first to get specific eviction notes. They were told they had three months to vacate their Milan headquarters, a building where Mussolini founded his Fascist fighting squads.

¶ The Cabinet authorized Scelba to begin the ratification process for the European Army treaty, and empowered him to risk a vote of confidence when the issue—after a long, noisy and tortuous parliamentary process—comes up for a showdown in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies. The EDC bill will not get out of committee until May or later, and when it does the Communists and their allies will launch a massive attack. Optimistic timetable for ratification: six months.