ITALY: One Down, One to Go

Democracy discovered in southern Italy’s municipal elections last month that it had two enemies, not one. The neo-Fascist M.S.I. (Movimento Sociale Italiano), which many people treated as a stale joke, emerged as Italy’s third party and another threat to Premier Alcide de Gasperi’s middle-of-the-road Demo-Christians (TIME, June 9). Last week, De Gasperi used one enemy to help strike down another. He maneuvered the Communists into helping him against the Fascists.

Backed by the Communist bloc, the Demo-Christians easily pushed through (410 votes to 34) a bill drafted by Interior Minister Mario Scelba. whose name is usually anathema to the Reds. In rendering Fascism illegal, the Scelba law does a serviceable job of defining it. It bans any movement that 1) “exalts, threatens or uses violence”; 2) “advocates the suppression of [Constitutional] freedoms”; 3) engages in “racial propaganda”; 4) “denigrates democracy.” Penalties: for Fascist activity, three to ten years in jail; for the Fascist salute, three months.

“It’s a sword of Damocles hanging over our heads,” moaned natty M.S.I. Chief Prince Valerio Borghese, and that is just what it is. For the moment, the government is content to let its bright new weapon hang for all to see. It let word leak out that next month’s M.S.I, national convention would be permitted but carefully watched. Borghese sent word to the faithful to avoid the Fascist salute, the Fascist hymn and similar trappings.

As the Scelba law passed, the temporary alliance of Demo-Christian and Communist ended too. Last week, following a roaring attack by Red Boss Palmiro Togliatti on visiting NATO Chief Matthew Ridgway, De Gasperi jumped to his feet, turned toward the Reds and said: “Remember this! As long as I remain in this place, I shall not recognize that you have a right to prepare a revolution in Italy. If present laws are not sufficient to curb you, we shall make new ones.” In other words, one down, one more to go.