LETTER FROM ITALY
91
What such people want is not clear, how far they can go even
less. Does Gedda, a gynecologist and a university professor, nurture the
ambition of replacing De Gasperi? People who know him say that
he is a fanatic, an astute and cold-blooded politician, quite capable,
should things go that far, of playing the role of an Italian Salazar with
the support both of the neo-fascists and of the left wing, "corporatist,"
Demochristians. As for the general terms of the problem, an influential
Roman priest stated them to me in the following, rather surprising,
way: "In a Catholic country," he said, "the existence of a Catholic
party makes little political sense. The Christian Democrats, except for
a vague reference to Christianity and the social doctrine of the Church,
have no unified political doctrine or program, only an electoral formula.
The Party is ridden by conflicting tendencies and interests, many of
which are neither specially Catholic nor specially Christian Democratic,
but just utilitarian and opportunist. In the transitional postwar period
the formula could work. But now things are coming to a head. Prob–
lems have to be faced, one way or the other, instead of being indefinitely
postponed. Communism cannot be conquered by procrastination. What
we need is a party of Catholics who have made up their minds as to
the kind of policy they want to carry out, and who do not confuse
political action with religious lip service." The same person told me
that what Gedda had in mind was, precisely, the formation of a "crypto–
Catholic" party. Plans for its constitution were well advanced, he added,
and would, in fact, have been publicized early this fall, had not the
Vatican considered the enterprise "untimely."
Catholic meandering aside, it is clear that on the parliamentary
level, the Italian political situation is unsettled. Should the Christian
Democrats continue to lose ground, as is quite likely, while the Popular
Front gained even a little, the formation of a majority would become
a thorny problem. De Gasperi would have to choose between accepting
neo-fascist support, which apparently he would refuse to do, and taking
back into the Government the social democrats and the liberals. In
the first case (in the case, that is, that the majority of the Demo–
christian party should insist on a right-wing alliance), a serious crisis
would begin, with the possibility of a sharp tum toward an openly
authoritarian Catholic regime.
As for the second alternative, it is made particularly difficult by
the fact that whatever hope the Third Force parties have of not being
completely crushed at the next elections depends on their not accepting
responsibility for Demochristian policies. De Gasperi's last tum has
made a compromise with the moderate left practically impossible. On
