NENNI_ ACCIDENTALLY KICKED OUT THE: PROPS
By Tullio Venturi .
ROME, July 6 -= The difficulties lodged in the "Center-Left" government when it was constituted Lsee World Outlook December 20, 1963] wrecked the project after little more than six months. Some- _ thing had to be done about the worsening economic situation, Asa bourgeois government, there was no choice but to‘attempt this at the expense of the working class by lay-offs and a wage squeeze, But. this exposed the reformist pretensions of the government as demagogy, thereby disorediting the “socialists" who had joined it,
The crisis flared over the vote in parliament on Chapter 88 of the Ministry of Education's Budget, which allocated 149 million lire [100 lire = U.S.$0.16] for private schools (which are mainly Catholic, This was rejected, but; by.a vote that split the government majority, The DC [Christian: Democratic party, the party of big business] voted in favor, while the other ‘three government parties; i.e., the PSI [Nenni'ts Socialist party], the PSDI [Saragat!s Sooial- Democratio party] and the PRI (Republican party, a small petty-bourgeois. party). abstained, The Communist party, the PSIUP (the new Socialist party formed by a split from the PSI), and all the right~ wing parties opposed the’ measure, After the vote June 26, the Prime Minister resigned, 2 : ae
A chain of "accidents" led to this crisis. As Nenni revealed in a speech at the Central Committee meeting of his party July 3, when the PSI decided to abstain, they did not expect that the PSDI and the PRI would follow suit. But these parties were concerned about being outflanked from the left with regard to clericalism, Nenni criticized this as "absurd," pointing out that these parties also declared that they did not agree with the PSI as to the substance of the matter, a
Once again Nenni thus revealed the true nature of his now rare references to principles, It is a matter of lip service, His problem this time was that he overlooked the possibility that his lip service might knock out the props holding up this government,
What are. the prospects at the moment? After the usual consul tations made by the president of the Republic, former Prime Minister Moro has been asked to try again, The National Congress of the DG, which was soheduled to be held just as-the crisis broke, was hastily postponed, The PSI took similar action, postponing a national organizational conference since "in such circumstances it would have transformed itself into a congress,"
. The PSI is now divided into three tendencies holding the following positions: The majority, lead by Nenni and De Martino (the party's secretary), which obtained 52 votes at the last session of the Central Committee held July 3-4, is determined to back another
"center-left" government and is ready to pay for it with further capitulations, Another tendency is lead by Giolitti, who held the post of budget minister in the government that resigned, and I.M. Lombardi, the editor of L'Avanti, the party's daily. This tendency favors continuing the coalition but under certain conditions, Eleven in the Central Committee voted for this, The third tendency is: the Left wing, which won 23 votes in the Central Committee. Although it is not in principle against the “experiment,” the left wing considers that support for a "center-left" government is -a negative policy in the present stage and it therefore favors keeping’ the party out of - the government.
As for the Communist party, although it is against the govern-
ment and criticizes the PSI for entering the coalition, it lacks an alternative solution, This-is due to the fact that it does not oppose the policy of a coalition'as such with the bourgeoisie, In a public speech July 3, Togliatti openly stated this, declaring that ttwe already entered a coalition’ government with pourgeois parties and we shall do it again when we think it should be done,"
The olass-collaborationist line of the Communist party is also reflected in the statement made by Togliatti July 1, after having been consulted by the president of the Republic. "The central “problem in the present situation," said Togliatti, “is that of reestablishing a relationship of confidence between the government and the working MASSES, regardless of the political tendency they belong to,