ITALY: COMMUNIST AND RIGHT-WING PARTIES CAMPAIGN ON FINAL DAY OF ELECTIONEERING.

Record ID: 347439

  • Title: ITALY: COMMUNIST AND RIGHT-WING PARTIES CAMPAIGN ON FINAL DAY OF ELECTIONEERING.
  • Date: 6th May 1972
  • Summary: 1. GV Elections banners no wall (2 shots) 0.08 2. GV PAN Election banners outside PCI meeting place 0.13 3. GV PAN Crowd sing Communist rally anthems and applause 0.37 4. LV ZOOM IN Luigi Longo (with cap) arrives with Enrico Berlinguer 0.45 5. MV Board on speaker's platform 0.48 6. MV Berlinguer speaks (in Italian) 1.07 7. G
  • Embargoed: 21st May 1972 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: ROME, ITALY
  • Country: Italy
  • Reuters ID: LVA3WC5YKBM07E4BHTGCBIV114J4
  • Story Text: Election campaigns for the Italian general election ended on Friday (May 5), giving thirty-seven million voters thirty hours freedom from electioneering before the polls were due to open on Sunday (May 7).

    Political analysts predicted the return of the ruling Christian Democrats--who have held power within and without coalition since World War Two-but the outcome of the votes for the other main parties was uncertain. Interest has been widely focused, meanwhile, on the right-wing Italian Social Movement, accused by its opponents of being neo-fascist, who were expected to gain a number of middle-class votes by promising a "return to law and order". At the other end of the political scale, the Communist Party appeared to be split within its own ranks--the more conservative members insisting on achieving power through parliamentary process, and a generally younger faction accusing the conservative communist of becoming part of the "establishment".

    For the last ten years, the Christian Democrats have shared power in a coalition with socialists, social democrats and republicans. Since this coalition fell in January (1972), precipitating Sunday's election a year ahead of schedule, a caretaker government has ben led by Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti--who said recently that the Christian Democrats would refuse an alliance with either the Communist Party, Italy's second largest, which polled over 26 per cent in the last election, or the Italian Social Movement.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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