Stranica 1 [1]
ae
: IMPRESSIONS FROM ITALY,
This late spring's municipal elections are over,
While the smoke o propaganda slowly clears away, it is impor~
tant for the objective observer - as well as for Italian offi¬
cialis — to try clearly to see the trends and tendencies, espe=~
cially since these are of utmost importance and foreshadow cos
ming eventse It has, in fact, to often been overlooked, that
1953 will see General elections in this country, which will
eravely affect the future of Italy 3; and that in view of this
perspective, this spring's municipal elections, down to the low=
liest hamlet, were fought on straight party=lines t municipal
and local consideration scarcely entered into the picture, very
much to the demage of the roots of Italian Democracy.
But in order clearly to understand the political pice
ture, it is necessary first to cast a short glance on the econo=
mic ones Italy has by far received the greatest chunk of Mare
shall aid, of all the continental European nations, Playing in
States, the Italian Govermement was able to extract from the
American administration, more interested in electoral than uni=
versal considerations , huge sums of money with few if any strings
actached, It thus happened, that while this monetary manna fell
over an arid country, its distribution was far from lucky, There
was so much that. something trickled down to everybody. But the
bulk stayed in a few chose hands, who built up vast fortunes,
mostly outside of the countrys Italy, a land of few millionaires
living of the masses then ten years ago 4 but it has certainly
a larger number of enormous fortunes, A very unhealthy situation.
Addeé to. this is the rapidly growing population, the impossibi~
lity to leave he country in larger numbers, the universal povertys
Hence despite its oytward brilliance, sespite the ostentation
of the newly-rich, Italy is suffering from & fundamental grave
economic crisis. Hidden though it may be in the official statis¬
ties, there is a very bad unemployment problem, which the gover=
ment is one af the gravest sources of political unrest in the
country. a j \ 3
But there are other things besides thi\s economic pics
ture, There is @ strong revulsion of sentiment against the
ruling Af cuties cr rarag Party. This iy and its smaller
ue
political satellites of the left, is suffering af om its to long
ee
\ LN
4.