ITALY: Another Government Dissolves

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No easy solution is in sight for the Christian Democrats

As expected, Italy's 39th government since the fall of Fascism in 1943 went the way of all the others last week. But nothing demonstrated the changing times and mood more than the manner in which the government fell.

In 1973, Premier Giulio Andreotti, who then headed a center-right coalition made up of his Christian Democrats and the conservative Liberal Party, lost 13 consecutive parliamentary votes before calling it quits. This time Andreotti's 18-month-old government did not so much fall as dissolve. To avoid a showdown vote that would have poisoned the atmosphere and left the parties in a state of political war, he bowed out quietly, imploring his party to exercise "general prudence."

There was good reason for his discretion. The challenge facing Italy is a forceful, intensified demand by the Communists for a direct role in an emergency government that would deal with Italy's mounting economic, labor and law-and-order problems. The Christian Democrats' dilemma: find a compromise that would give the Communists new power in governing Italy, however that role might be disguised, or face the trauma of another early national election that would further polarize the country.

The stage for Andreotti's resignation was set last month with the collapse of the six-party programmatic accord by which the Communists and four other nonruling parties abstained on key votes and thus kept the minority Christian Democratic Cabinet afloat. Three parties, led by the Communists, then demanded formation of a multiparty emergency government. The tiny (four seats) Radical Party, which specializes in goading both the Christian Democrats and the Communists, subsequently called for a parliamentary debate on the government. The Communists passed the word that if Andreotti did not resign first, they would introduce a motion of noconfidence.

Accepting the inevitable, Andreotti last week convened a farewell Cabinet meeting and drove to the Quirinale Palace to tender his resignation to President Giovanni Leone. The President immediately began the time-honored ritual of inviting officials of all parties to the Quirinale for talks. Among them: Communist Party Boss Enrico Berlinguer, Socialist Party Leader Bettino Craxi, Neo-Fascist M.S.I. Chieftain Giorgio Almirante, and two Christian Democratic veterans, Benigno Zaccagnini and Amintore Fanfani. After all that, Leone asked Andreotti to try to form a new government.

There was more than a reasonable doubt as to whether he would succeed. The Christian Democrats have perceptibly stiffened their resistance to an emergency government. Partly as a result of the strong U.S. admonition against allowing Eurocommunists into power, they are more reluctant than ever to join the Communists in a parliamentary majority coalition. Explained one Western diplomat: "The stand of the Americans has encouraged those Christian Democrats who are opposed to any sort of Communist participation in government and made the others stop and think."