Word: fanfani
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...course of a 29-year career in Italian politics, feisty little (5 ft. 4 in.) Amintore Fanfani, 67, has been sometimes down and almost out. He has also been Premier three times, a Cabinet minister in seven governments other than his own, and twice secretary (party leader) of the Christian Democrats, including a stint for the past two years. Last week his leadership of the Christian Democrats, Italy's largest party, ended abruptly. At an emergency national council of the party, Fanfani, whose conglomeration of nicknames Includes "the Tuscan Pony," "the Pint-Sized Napoleon," "Little Caesar" and "il Padrino...
...Christian Democrats in the recent regional elections (TIME, June 30). As the delegates arrived at party headquarters in EUR, a suburb of Rome, many of them had obviously already picked a primary target for the "renewal." They blamed Christian Democratic losses and sizable Communist Party gains directly on Fanfani, who is the unquestioned leader of the factionalized party's right wing...
Changing Moods. Critics charged that Fanfani still approaches politics in terms of cold war antiCommunism. By ignoring vast social changes in Italy as well as voter unrest over government corruption, recession and unemployment and the decaying quality of life, he had, they believed, led the party into a series of humiliating defeats, culminating in the regional elections...
...Fanfani has never been known to back down from a fight. He opened the six-day council with a lengthy speech that defended his hard-line political stand and made only vague mention of error or misjudgment. He also said that he would not step down voluntarily as secretary. "My flight would only produce further damage," Fanfani said. Amid angry cries of "blackmail," he linked his own political future to that of the fragile center-left coalition government of current Premier Aldo Moro...
Other Christian Democratic leaders tried to persuade Fanfani to resign gracefully. Moro conceded that the Christian Democrats had been guilty of an "arrogance of power" for not recognizing the changing moods of youth, women and labor. He professed "solidarity" with Fanfani but firmly dissociated the fate of the party secretary from that of his own government...