ITALY: Pretty Gift

But will Berlinguer accept?

While French voters pondered the possibility of Communists in power, their neighbors in Italy were much closer to the prospect. After six weeks of caretaker government—close to a record even in Italy—Premier Giulio Andreotti went into a three-day meeting with the 398 parliamentary members from his Christian Democratic Party determined to win backing for a radical step to solve the crisis. Andreotti hewed to the party line, rejecting any deal that would give the Communists seats in some emergency Cabinet —as they had originally demanded. But he argued that in view of the "extreme gravity" of the...