Lessons from Italy
No country with an active and powerful Communist party— and France is the most obvious analogy—can afford to ignore the lessons which were propounded in the first round of the Italian municipal elections on May 27th-28th and have now been repeated with remarkable precision in the second round on June 10th. Attention has been carefully directed to the occasion by the insistence of all parties on its national, as distinct from local, significance. The pro-Government parties formed a well-organised coalition, and this strategy has paid handsome dividends, for on Sunday they added Florence and Turin to the list of great centres in which they have wrested control from the Communists—Genoa and Venice having been won in the first round a fortnight earlier. But the Communists 'are left with the comfort that, in combination with their Left-wing Socialist followers, they increased their total vote at the expense of the pro-Government parties, and they can be relied upon to make the fullest propaganda use of the figures. Can the Government be relied upon to make as full use of its own successes ? The lesson that it pays non-Communist parties to work together was sufficiently clearly grasped by Signor De Gasperi and his Government before the elections, and all that the voting has done so far is to confirm it. It is now more neces- sary to insist that the pro-Government parties, despite consider- able losses as compared with the general election of 1948, still command more votes in the provincial capitals than the Com- munist bloc. There is no trick about their victory. But it still remains to be seen whether they have thoroughly grasped the Most fundamental lesson of all, which is that coalitions have a tendency to fall apart once the elections are over. The Govern- ment's victory in these elections—for victory it is despite the increased Communist vote—is not the end of a chapter. The Communist roots still hold, and it is only when they begin to loosen that the Government can afford to relax its vigilance.
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