Word: moro
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...After Moro 's murder, a trend toward the political center
Italians had reasons for both hope and alarm last week following the obsequies for assassinated former Premier and Christian Democratic Leader Aldo Moro. In local elections affecting two provinces and 816 cities and towns, voters turned out in record numbers (3.4 million, or 10% of the electorate). Shunning the extremes, they cast their ballots for the parties of the political center and handed an unexpected loss to Italy's Communist Party. But as if to prove that the country would have no reprieve from violence, terrorists of the Red Brigades and other radical groups carried out a series...
Although no parliamentary seats were at stake, the elections were seen as an important index of the national mood. The results surprised even those who had expected the Christian Democrats to benefit from a wave of sympathy after Moro's murder. The party won 42.5% of the vote (up from 39% in the 1976 general election), while the Communists took only 26.5% (down from 34%). Recouping their losses of two years ago, the Socialists came in with a respectable 13.5%. The centrist Republicans and Social Democrats also gained, while the neo-Fascist Italian Social Movement and the far left...
...Christian Democratic headquarters in Rome, official mourning for Moro gave way to momentary ebullience over the bastonata (thrashing) delivered to the Communists. The victory strengthened the position of Premier Giulio Andreotti and Party Secretary Benigno Zaccagnini as heirs to Moro's leadership. Eventually, however, the election results could give those conservative regulars in the party who are unhappy about collaborating with the Communists new incentive to challenge that leadership. As one Christian Democratic strategist put it: "I knew we should have gone for an early election last winter instead of forming a government with Communist support...
DIED. Aldo Moro, 61, leader of Italy's Christian Democratic Party and the man who was most likely to become the country's next President; of gunshot wounds inflicted by terrorists (see WORLD...