Word: demo
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Deadly Adventure. The measure before the house was admittedly controversial, and inspired misgivings even among some of De Gasperi's Demo-Christian coalition. By a formula so complex that it took two mathematicians and a handful of political scientists three months to work it out, De Gasperi's proposal would give 64% of the seats in the Chamber to any party or coalition which wins more than 50% of the vote. De Gasperi, whose own devotion to minority rights was hardened during his long years in opposition to Mussolini, is reluctantly convinced that democracy can survive in Italy...
After 20 minutes, peace returned to the chamber, now slopped with ink and blood and littered with glass shards, torn paper and shredded shirts. One usher went to the hospital with a brain concussion; a Red sported a two-inch-deep gash in his scalp; a Demo-Christian nursed a badly bruised abdomen; the House first-aid station impartially bandaged Red heads and court-plastered Demo-Christian faces...
...scuffle was part of a deadly earnest battle between De Gasperi's government and its powerful Communist opposition (128 members). An election is coming with spring; the Demo-Christians expect to win by a hair (Italy is the only nation in Western Europe where the Communists have gained strength since 1948). Narrow margins might be tolerated in England, where the opposition is democratic; but could Italian democracy survive and effectively govern if the Communists really controlled Parliament...
...Gasperi's electoral reform bill proposed that the winning party or coalition of parties be given a bonus of additional seats, sufficient to give it at least 63% of the total number of seats, enough for a working majority. If passing the bill was important to the Demo-Christians, defeating it was imperative to the Reds...
Cracked Heads. Communist Walter Audisio, who likes to boast that he was Mussolini's executioner, sped to the clerk's table, ripped away a microphone, scared off the clerks and tore up the parliamentary minutes. Spying an elderly Demo-Christian deputy who was grabbing an antique clock to save it, Audisio clubbed him to the floor. Tough Demo-Christian Deputy Giuseppe Bettiol tore the leg off a chair, advanced on Audisio and beat him into retreat...