Word: communistic
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...40th government since the fall of Fascism in 1943 collapsed with a familiar crash last week, creating a crisis that presaged general elections and, quite possibly, renewed political terrorism. Charging that the Christian Democrats had reneged on an agreement to consult them on important government decisions, the Communists withdrew from an alliance of major parties that had supported the one-party government of Premier Giulio Andreotti in Parliament. Without the backing of the Communist, Socialist, Republican and Social Democratic parties, Andreotti mildly told the Chamber of Deputies, he had no choice except to step down as head of a Cabinet...
Party Chief Enrico Berlinguer and other Communist leaders insisted that henceforth they would settle for nothing less than "a presence in the government"-meaning seats in a future Cabinet. Berlinguer's position was that he had earned few benefits from a tacit collaboration with the Christian Democrats. Indeed, the Communists complained that they had been blamed for unpopular government decisions without having gained any real power...
...Communist pledge to cooperate in a three-year government economic recovery plan, for example, had been attacked by workers who felt that they would suffer from new austerity measures and wage restraints. Similarly, the Andreotti government's failure to make a dent in unemployment, which rose from 1.5 million to 1.7 million in 1978, caused the jobless to criticize Berlinguer for not pushing through employment programs...
...result, extreme left-wing groups and militant nonaligned unions had gained a host of new supporters, while the Communists suffered significant losses in local elections last year. Apparently reacting to widespread charges that the Communists had betrayed ideology for the illusion of influence, the once moderate and conciliatory Berlinguer has taken an increasingly tough stance. At the same time, Christian Democratic leaders have remained obdurate in rejecting Communist participation in the Cabinet...
...Communist losses in last year's regional elections partly reflected public reaction to atrocities by ultraleftist terrorists, who regard themselves as Italy's "true" Communists. Renewed outbreaks of terrorist violence are unlikely to help Berlinguer at the polls. Last week, for example, Milan's deputy public prosecutor, Emilio Alessandrini, was assassinated by a group linked to the Red Brigades. He was the third terrorist victim in a month and the 34th in the past 13 months. Protesting his murder, Milan's trade unions called a four-hour work standstill during Alessandrini's funeral...