Word: andreotti
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...politics last week added a significant red tint to Europe's most troubled government. It was not the "historic compromise" that would bring Communists to power in Italy, but it was the next, most important step. After 52 days of do-nothing disagreement, Christian Democratic Premier-designate Giulio Andreotti and Communist Party Chief Enrico Berlinguer accepted a "governing agreement" that puts Communists directly in the majority for the first time since 1947, when they were expelled from the postwar Cabinet of Alcide de Gasperi...
Under the agreement, which the smaller Socialist, Social Democratic and Republican parties also ratified, the Communists will henceforth have a direct role in government-not with Cabinet portfolios, but as full, acknowledged partners in Andreotti's parliamentary majority. As Berlinguer put it jubilantly, Italy's big (1.7 million members) Communist Party has reached "the threshold of national leadership responsibility...
Late last week Andreotti presented his new government-Italy's 40th since the collapse of Fascism in 1943-to President Giovanni Leone. The deal will take effect when he asks parliament for a formal vote of confidence this week. For the first time in 31 years on such a vote, the Communists will stand up to say Aye. All parties made it clear that the arrangement was to continue only until the presidential elections at the end of this year...
...step had been the subject of a suspenseful tug of war since mid-January. It was the result of leftist demands for the inclusion of Communists in an "emergency government" to deal with the problems -economic, labor and law-and-order -that brought on the fall of Andreotti's previous Cabinet...
...Christian Democrats could probably have expanded the 38.7% of the vote they got in 1976-but only at the expense of other non-Communist parties. The Communists, who got 34.4% of the vote in 1976, would probably also have picked up support. So instead of risking an election, Andreotti skillfully dithered until Berlinguer dropped his call for full Cabinet representation, then made it clear that Berlinguer would have to pay a price for a place in the majority...