88
PARTISAN REVIEW
Quando c'
e
La salute
...
As long as one is in good health, that is, other
troubles cannot be very serious, and one had better not disturb the
"logical" quiet of the normal person.
As
for unemployment, there were two million unemployed in Italy
in 1947, and there are still two million (official figure) in 1951 . That
the Government should not have found a way of reducing this most
disturbing of all statistical figures is baffling. Aside from more concrete
reasons, it is certainly due in part to the peculiar notion Italian rulers
and ruling classes have of the health of the body politic.
Quando c'
e
la
salute
means, in this case: as long as the party in power feels powerful,
as long as the police are efficient, as long as those who have money
make more money, and especially, as long as the "supreme spiritual
interests" (a strong State, that is, plus a strong moral order) of the
people are preserved, all those concerned, no matter how objectively
arduous the situation, cannot help feeling optimistic, nay, happy. Hence,
incapable of worrying.
Since the municipal elections of last May, however, the Demo–
christian party does not feel quite as healthy as before. The slight, and
in itself not very significant, increase of Stalinist votes has reinforced
its left wing which had been insisting on a planned economy (actually:
Catholic corporatism) and a cautious loosening of Atlantic commit–
ments; while the conspicuous success of the outright fascist Movirnento
Sociale Italiano has greatly encouraged the old-fashioned reactionaries,
who had been campaigning openly for a final break with whatever
remains of the anti-fascist Resistance ; a more nationalistic foreign
policy, and a resolute turn to authoritarian methods in domestic affairs.
In the middle is De Gasperi, the moderate
par excellence:
mode–
rately to the left, i.e., and moderately to the right, depending on the
circumstances; at present he is trying to hold the balance by leaning
quite a bit to the right of the center. Still irreplaceable because of
his
personal prestige, De Gasperi saw his authority seriously challenged
in the course of the last ministerial reshuffling, preceding his visit to
the States. In order to keep the party together, he has had to make
three patent concessions to the extreme right: he has dropped Sforza
as Minister of Foreign Affairs because, as the Premier said in so many
words, "a stronger assertion of Italy's rights was in order"; he has
replaced Segni, the Minister of Agriculture who had started the agrarian
reform, with Fanfani, who is not a reactionary but obviously will not
be able to go as fast as his predecessor in the expropriation of southern
landowners; finally, De Gasperi has created the post of Undersecretary
of the Press and Propaganda, an ominous reminder of Mussolini's organ
