Berlinguer's Communists suffer a stunning defeat
In striking contrast to the cheering and dancing of past election nights, the crowd in front of the Italian Communist Party (P.C.I.) headquarters in Rome was as somber as a cortege. As Party Boss Enrico Berlinguer stepped dejectedly out onto the balcony, there was only a desultory round of applause. His message could not have been less triumphant: Berlinguer acknowledged what he called an "appreciable variation with respect to our exceptional advances of 1976." When someone dutifully unfurled the red hammer-and-sickle flag from the balcony,...
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