Fifteen months ago, when Italian Premier Amintore Fanfani marched his moderate Christian Democratic Party through the apertura a sinistra (opening to the left) into a parliamentary partnership with the left-wing Socialists, he acknowledged the deal as a dangerous gamble. "We shall certainly have some sleepless nights," he said. By now, Fanfani must be a hopeless insomniac.
Last week nearly 33 million Italians went to the polls for national elections and rewarded their experimenting Premier with a jolting setback that cost his party 730,000 votes and may well cost him his job. The apertura might survive, but its...
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