Letter From Italy

“Fascism returns in Europe; generals in France, bishops in Italy.” So, a few days before May 25, the radical and anti-clerical weekly L’Espresso summarized the mood which characterized the last week of the election campaign.

The election results confirmed this forecast. By increasing from 10 to 12 millions the votes cast for the Christian Democrats, who have for the last ten years practically monopolized the government, the Italian middle class has shown it wants to live quietly and securely, all but giving the Catholic party carte blanche to carry on a cautiously conservative policy.

This is, in effect, a situation analogous to that of 1948. On April 18th of that year the Christian Democrats, exploiting t...