Word: centrist
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...centrist, 24-member Cabinet is composed of 16 Christian Democrats, six representatives from the small Social Democratic and Liberal parties, plus two unaffiliated technocrats. For parliamentary survival, it will have to depend on nothing more solid than the grudging abstention of Bettino Craxi's unpredictable Socialists. It will also have to contend with the opposition of Enrico Berlinguer's still powerful Communists. As a result, Cossiga hardly is in a position to make major decisions to deal with Italy's daunting problems of 15% inflation, 7% unemployment and nearly chronic terrorism...
Riding on the support of her own centrist Liberals, plus a loose coalition of Christian Democrats, British Conservatives and French Gaullists, France's Veil won her post on the second ballot, with 192 out of the 377 valid votes cast. Two leftist candidates, Italian Socialist Mario Zagari and Italian Communist Giorgio Amendola, went down to defeat with 138 and 47 votes respectively. Veil's victory thus demonstrated the effective dominance of the center-right parties in the Parliament, whose members were picked in direct elections throughout the nine European Community countries last month...
...specter of Eurocommunism coming to power in the NATO alliance. The defeat also raised the prospect of an intraparty challenge to Berlinguer's leadership, since it appeared to be a repudiation of his gradualist "historic compromise" strategy of joining the government in a national alliance with the centrist parties. Said Flaminio Piccoli, president of the Christian Democrats: "The Communist Party has lost its referendum on entering the government...
...gauge his electoral strength against that of President Valery Giscard d'Estaing, whom he will probably challenge for the presidency in 1981. The polls last week showed Chirac lagging far behind Simone Veil, Giscard's Minister of Health, who heads the list for the President's centrist lineup, and Francois Mitterrand, the top Socialist candidate in France. The most interesting contender in Italy is Communist Party Boss Enrico Berlinguer, demonstrating the Euro part of his Communism...
...much the same mixed way. Says Nevada Senator Paul Laxalt, a conservative who often needles Kennedy about his forays to the right: "Ted has no experience or confidence in local government. He still thinks all the competency is in Washington." G.O.P. Congressman Barber Conable also casts Kennedy as a centrist, a Big Government man but one who has stayed well within the mainstream of his own party. "Kennedy is a pragmatist, not an ideologue," says Conable...