Word: gronchi
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...Gronchi (pronounced gronc-key) is a Christian Democrat. But the loudest cheers came from the Communists and their fellow-traveling allies, Pietro Nenni's Socialists. Mario Scelba. the Christian Democratic Premier, stood in glum silence. He and Party Secretary Amintore Fanfani had done everything in their power to prevent the election of their fellow Christian Democrat. Gronchi's victory was a humiliating defeat for Scelba's shaky four-party coalition of the center; it was an open defiance of Fanfani's personal leadership of the big Christian Democratic Party, which has firmly guided Italy into...
...Voice of Discipline. The President of the Republic, who lives in the palace of the kings, is chiefly charged with ceremonial entertaining, signing bills, opening trade fairs. But he has one decisive function: he designates the Premier. In the faction-ridden Christian Democratic Party, Gronchi is the leader of a group which advocates the "opening to the left." He is also his party's outstanding symbol of a leftist neutralist tendency. With Scelba's government riven by disputes, the danger is that Gronchi would, sooner or later, pick a Premier who would bring the Nenni Socialists and their...
...Force of Rebellion. At the first secret ballot, Fanfani got a rude shock. There were 382 Christian Democrats on hand. But Merzagora got only 228 votes. There were 130 votes for Einaudi, 30 votes for Gronchi. Frantically, during the long Italian lunch hour, Fanfani scurried from one party member to another, cracking the whip. But on the second ballot Merzagora not only did not gain, but lost a few votes. What was worse, the conservative faction within the Christian Democrats, which includes former Premier Giuseppe Pella, began voting for Left-Winger Gronchi. This was their revenge against Party Secretary Fanfani...
...Communists and Nenni Socialists bided their time. Their candidate, who led on the first ballot, dropped out. On the third ballot, near midnight, the Socialists threw their 100-odd votes to Gronchi, sending him surging into the lead. All night long, before the fourth ballot, Fanfani tried to stem the rebellion. He got Merzagora to write out a letter withdrawing his candidacy in favor of Einaudi. Then, with Scelba, he went to Gronchi and asked him to withdraw too. Gronchi refused. "You have always believed in force," he told Fanfani. "Now that I am stronger than...
...apartment. Born near Pisa in modest circumstances, he worked his way through college, was an early leader of the Catholic workers' movement, was decorated for gallantry three times in World War I. A founding member of Don Luigi Sturzo's Popular Party, predecessor of the Christian Democrats, Gronchi served briefly in Mussolini's first government in 1922, but rapidly soured on II Duce and was forced out of public life by Mussolini's displeasure. A leader of Italy's underground in World War II, he served as Minister of Industry and Commerce in various governments...