Word: christian
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Christian Democratic headquarters in Rome, official mourning for Moro gave way to momentary ebullience over the bastonata (thrashing) delivered to the Communists. The victory strengthened the position of Premier Giulio Andreotti and Party Secretary Benigno Zaccagnini as heirs to Moro's leadership. Eventually, however, the election results could give those conservative regulars in the party who are unhappy about collaborating with the Communists new incentive to challenge that leadership. As one Christian Democratic strategist put it: "I knew we should have gone for an early election last winter instead of forming a government with Communist support...
...mood at Communist headquarters was sullen and depressed, although spokesmen argued that the party traditionally does better in general elections than in local contests where Christian Democratic patronage is entrenched. Party officials admitted that, despite their forceful stand against bargaining with Moro's kidnapers, they had been tarred by the terrorists' use of the "Red label" and what they called the "illicit misrepresentation of the Communist name." Giancarlo Pajetta, a prominent Communist leader, fumed against Christian Democratic politicians in the provinces who had called the Red Brigades "the Communists' children" in campaign speeches...
...election will probably not have any immediate effect on the governing agreement between the Christian Democrats and the Communists so skillfully worked out by Moro earlier this year. The day after the results were tallied, in fact, all the major parties gave the government an overwhelming vote of confidence (522 members in favor, 27 opposed, 3 abstentions) for its seven-week-old antiterrorist decree. The measure raises the penalty for a kidnaping-homicide to life imprisonment and gives Italy's police wider arrest and interrogation powers...
...failure to disrupt the government, some Italians are pessimistic about its long-term future. In an interview with Rome Bureau Chief Jordan Bonfante, Gianni Agnelli, chairman of Fiat, the giant $13 billion industrial complex, complained that normal parliamentary life is being displaced by agreement at the top between the Christian Democrats and the Communists. In the future, he said, if Italy is to avoid outright authoritarian rule, it may be forced to settle for a vague extraparliamentary modus vivendi, arranged among what he calls the "real social forces," such as the trade unions, industry, the Ministry of the Interior...
...complicating problem is that the Israelis are continuing to arm the Christian Lebanese along the southern border. When they eventually withdraw from the remaining territory they occupy, the Israelis hope to leave behind them a buffer zone of Christian villages. So, while the Christians are getting stronger, the Palestinians are getting angrier. "What right do all those countries have to be here?" demands one Palestinian. "They are doing Israel's dirty work...