Word: centrists
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Aware that a Communist President was not in the cards despite the party's growing national acceptance, the Communists were willing to promote Pertini out of leftist loyalty. In addition, the avuncular, pipe-smoking Socialist, a former speaker of the Chamber of Deputies, was acceptable to the centrist Republicans and Social Democrats who complete the five-party parliamentary majority that supports the government of Christian Democratic Premier Giulio Andreotti...
...wave of sympathy after Moro's murder. The party won 42.5% of the vote (up from 39% in the 1976 general election), while the Communists took only 26.5% (down from 34%). Recouping their losses of two years ago, the Socialists came in with a respectable 13.5%. The centrist Republicans and Social Democrats also gained, while the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement and the far left Proletarian Democrats lost heavily...
...release, the government would reject any attempt at extortion by the kidnapers, said Andreotti, and stood firmly against negotiations. Suddenly Benigno Zaccagnini, secretary of the ruling Christian Democrats, was handed a sealed message. Zaccagnini hurried out of the chamber. A few moments later Ugo La Malfa, leader of the centrist Republicans, told the astonished deputies that the message was a new letter from Moro...
...composed of factions whose past enthusiasm for reform has been either nil or purely verbal. The Socialists are unlikely to replace the Union of the Left with an alliance with the UDF: they would split their party if they tried, and they have somber memories of past centrist alliances, which killed the old Socialist party...
...Although the leftist momentum had been arrested, there were a number of constituencies where the second-round election would be decided by the narrowest of margins. "If just a few of our supporters decide to go fishing on March 19, we could still lose," declared a centrist campaign aide. To prevent a diminution of the 29 million first-round turnout, 15 center-right Cabinet ministers stormed the hustings...