Word: spadolini
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Craxi's attempts to soothe ruffled feelings at home were less encouraging. After being invited by President Francesco Cossiga to stitch together Italy's 45th postwar government, Craxi tried first to patch things up with his old coalition partners. Most notably, he opened talks with acting Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini, who precipitated the government's downfall by withdrawing his Republican Party from Craxi's center-left coalition. In a meeting that insiders described as "cordially chilly," Craxi and Spadolini pledged to continue talking. But Spadolini, who supports the U.S. and Israel and has opposed the Craxi government's rapport with...
Still, when Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini, 60, leader of the small but pivotal Republican Party, abruptly withdrew from the government with two other Republican ministers on Oct. 16, Craxi's government seemed doomed to collapse. Spadolini was angered by the Prime Minister's decision to release Mohammed Abul Abbas Zaidan, the Palestinian Liberation Front leader who Washington believes planned to use the Achille Lauro to launch an attack on Israel. Furious at having been excluded from any prior consultation in that decision, Spadolini was also protesting what he considered the pro-Arab tilt in Rome's Middle East policy...
Criticism from the U.S. and from Spadolini's Republicans came as a "bitter surprise" to Craxi, who sought to appear as a wounded but loyal ally standing up for his nation's independence. Italians responded positively to the Prime Minister's posture. Indeed, a poll in the newsweekly L'Espresso showed 61% approval for Craxi's show of independence from the U.S., while only 19% disapproved...
...chat: "I'm sitting here with my very good friend." For Italians worried about the potential threat to Italo- American relations, it was a signal that Craxi had been given a tacit endorsement by the White House. Said one political observer: "The new Craxi government is a Reagan creation." Spadolini suddenly found himself isolated. The Defense Minister negotiated his price for remaining in the government: a foreign policy more closely aligned with NATO, a stronger antiterrorist stance and better coordination among the coalition partners...
...Rome, meanwhile, the Craxi government's impending collapse had become almost inevitable. By Wednesday, Spadolini had made it official: he and two other Republican Party ministers were leaving the government. Craxi scheduled a parliamentary debate on the hijacking issue for the next day and observed, "Now everything is more difficult and uncontrollable...