Reprieve

Just before leaving for a good-will visit to the U.S., Italy's careful little Premier, Mario Scelba, faced trouble inside his precarious four-party coalition government. Two small groups in the coalition were quarreling, and the Christian Democrats' own ambitious and powerful secretary-general, Amintore Fanfani, was demanding an immediate showdown (TIME, March 21).

Mario Scelba is slow to anger and never reaches heights of flaming oratory. He is the kind of man who writes out all his political pronouncements, follows his script closely and cannot be heckled into indiscretions. Last week, aware of his troubles, modest Mario Scelba, in a speech to 71 delegates of the Demo-Christian National Council, came as close as he ever does to boasting: "We have solved the Trieste problem and approved the Paris accords. We have laid the foundation for closer collaboration with Yugoslavia and have ended the sad chapter of struggle with Great Britain. With the U.S. we have established relations inspired by greater confidence and promising more intimate collaborations. The positive results justify our determination to strengthen a coalition which at present is irreplaceable." Quietly he added: "It must be realized that the present political situation does not offer any alternative."

Secretary-General Fanfani could see that these words carried weight with the Demo-Christian elders, and that in a showdown Fanfani, and not Scelba, would be beaten. So Fanfani executed a hasty but fairly graceful retreat. When the delegates drafted and passed a warm resolution praising Scelba and his coalition, Fanfani chimed in with a show of enthusiasm.

It was a clear setback for Fanfani, and a reprieve for Mario Scelba. But there still remained the controversial farm-policy bill, which had sparked the original trouble among the junior coalition partners. In view of his forthcoming trip to Washington, Scelba asked the Chamber of Deputies to postpone a vote on it. His request required a majority of those present, or 275 votes. He won with but one vote to spare (the vote was 276 to 272). Remarked Scelba quietly: "Even a majority of one is sufficient for the next 20 days." His trip to the U.S. was safe.

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