Word: christian
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...most crushing blow in a long decline. In West Germany, it was the surge of the environmentalist, anti-NATO Green Party that shocked the political establishment by winning 8.2% of the vote. In Italy, the Communists for the first time garnered more ballots than any other party, including the Christian Democrats, who have dominated the country's governments since...
West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl had more reason than most of his colleagues to be satisfied with the outcome of the election. With 46%, his ruling Christian Democrats lost only 3.2 percentage points compared with their showing in last year's national elections. For a party in power, that was an exceptional performance, especially when compared with that of the opposition Social Democrats, who dropped 3.4% from last year despite a campaign appeal to "send the government a reminder." But Kohl and his ministers had little cause to celebrate: the Free Democratic Party, the small but pivotal junior partner...
...typically byzantine twist of Italian politics, the Christian Democrats actually celebrated the outcome of an election in which, for the first time, the Communist Party came in ahead, with 33.3%. What pleased the second-place Christian Democrats (33%) was that they had finally arrested their steady decline, slightly increasing their share from an all-time low of 32.4% in last year's national elections. The Communists' narrow victory actually owed much to a wave of popular sympathy following the unexpected death on June 12 of their charismatic leader, Enrico Berlinguer. Exclaimed the party daily L 'Unit...
Italy's big loser was Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, whose Socialist Party lost .2% from its 11.4% score in 1983. Craxi in effect had won the Prime Minister's job last Aug. 4 by threatening to force new elections on the reluctant Christian Democrats, who feared a further setback. Now such pressure may not have the same effect: Craxi's days in power could be numbered if the Christian Democrats decide to bring him down. The decline of smaller center groups left the Christian Democrats and the Communists, known in Italy as the "two whales," to continue...
...inclusion in the government- Berlinguer rejected Soviet Communism as a model and approved Italy's membership in NATO. In the 1976 elections, the P.C.I, gained its greatest popularity, with 34.4% of the vote. But Berlinguer was denied the "historic compromise" of a coalition partnership with the long-dominant Christian Democrats, and his party's vote totals gradually declined...