Segni's Election

At any other time, the election of Antonio Segni as Italy's third President could evoke only enthusiasm; a dignified and selfless career has made the Christian Democrat one of Italy's most respected politicians. Many Italians, antagonized by Giovanni Gronchi's partisan use of the theoretically non-political office, look to Segni to restore dignity to the Presidency.

Unfortunately the conflict surrounding his election and the residue of ill-feeling it engendered endanger Prime Minister Amintore Fanfani's center-left coalition government, the much-publicized Christian Democratic "opening to the left." The coalition aims at sweeping and long-overdue political and economic reforms, but even with the qualified support of Pietro Nenni's left-wing Socialists, it maintains a perilous existence.

The entire Italian right, including a die-hard faction in the Christian Democratic Party itself, bitterly opposes the government's proposed reforms and its alliance with a Socialist Party once closely linked to the Communists. The Christian Democratic right wing, which until now has grudgingly co-operated with the progressive coalition, could wreck it by withdrawing its support.

Within the Socialist Party itself, support of the new government is far from unanimously approved. Almost half the Party opposes association with an anti-Communist government and urges a return to the "frontism" of the 'forties. Should the Communists find an adequate excuse for categorical rejection of the government, this considerable faction within the Socialist Party is expected to follow them into opposition.

The election of Segni, the candidate of the right and a firm supporter of NATO, took five days, nine ballots, and a ten-minute brawl between deputies of the left and right benches of the Chamber. Curiously, though, it has not yet antagonized the coalition's left so much as rigidified opposition to the coalition on the Christian Democratic right. Incensed by the desertion of Segni in the early ballots by the party's left, the right now threatens the effective withdrawal of support from the government.

Until now, Nenni, the Socialist leader, and Christian Democratic Political Secretary Aldo Moro have done masterful jobs controlling the powerful dissident factions in their parties. The defection of the dissident wing of either party would fell the government, and Segni's election may be the beginning of a series of attacks and counter-attacks leading to defection and the coalition's fall. To compensate for Segni's election, the coalition's left is now expected to demand that the Foreign Ministry which Segni vacates be filled from their ranks. To secure the reforms which the government promises and Italy desperately needs, they must refrain from this demand which the Christian Democratic right will view as retaliatory provocation.