Word: andreotti
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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That prospect, which causes shudders in Washington and other Western capitals, arose because Premier Giulio Andreotti finally gave up on a government that was "born to die," as newspapers called it. In January an Andreotti-led government that had ruled Italy since last spring collapsed when the Communists withdrew their support. At Pertini's behest, Andreotti then put together a jerry-built minority government consisting of his own Christian Democrats, the Republicans and the Social Democrats. The Premier's scenario was to present this weakling coalition to the senate, get a no-confidence vote that would lead...
...creating a crisis that presaged general elections and, quite possibly, renewed political terrorism. Charging that the Christian Democrats had reneged on an agreement to consult them on important government decisions, the Communists withdrew from an alliance of major parties that had supported the one-party government of Premier Giulio Andreotti in Parliament. Without the backing of the Communist, Socialist, Republican and Social Democratic parties, Andreotti mildly told the Chamber of Deputies, he had no choice except to step down as head of a Cabinet that had lasted for a precarious ten months...
...Communist pledge to cooperate in a three-year government economic recovery plan, for example, had been attacked by workers who felt that they would suffer from new austerity measures and wage restraints. Similarly, the Andreotti government's failure to make a dent in unemployment, which rose from 1.5 million to 1.7 million in 1978, caused the jobless to criticize Berlinguer for not pushing through employment programs...
...first effort to solve the crisis, Italy's 82-year-old President Sandro Pertini asked Andreotti to try to form a new government. If he succeeds, it will mark the third Cabinet in a row that Andreotti has headed, but the odds are against him. Although a skilled parliamentarian, he does not belong to the Christian Democratic leadership. His party, moreover, sorely misses the masterly negotiating talents of onetime Premier Aldo Moro, who was kidnaped and murdered by Red Brigades terrorists last year...
...vote on the Pandolfi plan draws near. Andreotti has used uncharacteristic rhetoric to spell out the consequences of defeat. Because the government includes "nearly all political persuasions," he says, "if we err, the democratic system itself will be in jeopardy. There will be no democratic opposition for the discontented to turn to." In the end, Andreotti's well-known stubbornness could be the surest safeguard of his power: during his second time as Premier, he suffered 13 consecutive parliamentary defeats before finally agreeing to step down...