For the first time ever, a Socialist prepares to assume power
In some ways, Socialist Leader Bettino Craxi, 49, was already beginning to look like the Prime Minister he has yearned so long to become. Gone were the open-necked shirts, safari jackets and jeans he had taken to wearing in Parliament in an attempt to project a populist image. Last week he was wearing dark, tailored suits as he held court with fellow politicians, labor leaders and business executives at a long oval table in the Chamber of Deputies' ornate Sala di Governo. With a mandate from President Sandro Pertini to form Italy's 44th postwar government, Craxi was trying to cobble together a five-party center-left coalition. Joining the Socialists would be the Republicans, Social Democrats, Liberals and, most notably, the Christian Democrats, traditional masters of the Italian political scene, who had tacitly agreed to step aside and let an outsider try his turn. If Craxi succeeds, as many expected he would, he will be the first Italian Socialist Prime Minister ever.
To skeptics, including the Communists and some Christian Democrats, a Socialist-led government promised to be little more than a passing novelty. They saw no reason to believe that Craxi, for all his reformist zeal, could be more successful than his dozens of predecessors who fell victims to Parliament's inexhaustible talent for fomenting political instability. There were optimistic politicians, though, who saw grounds for hope in the electorate's demonstrated distaste in the June elections for the major parties' malgoverno (bad government). In their view, Craxi has an opportunity to bring a durable change to the pattern of Italian politics. Said Republican Party Whip Adolfo Battaglia: "With Craxi and a brand-new legislature there's a chance for a serious long-term political renewal."
It was the ambitious Craxi who provoked early elections by withdrawing from the four-party governing coalition headed by Christian Democrat Amintore Fanfani. Craxi had hoped that his Socialists would make significant gains at the polls. But they merely inched up, from 9.8% to 11.4%, far short of expectations. In the process, however, the election set off what Italian newspapers called a political "earthquake." The Christian Democrats suffered an unprecedented loss of more than 5%, dropping from 38% to 33% of the popular vote. What shook the political establishment even more was a wave of protest votes, estimated at 18% to 20% of the electorate, squandered on splinter parties or simply thrown away in blank or spoiled ballots. Such gestures of contempt for the major parties were taken as a public warning against politics-as-usual while the nation's worsening economic ills went unattended.