An "Honest Man" Resigns

Just as the Moro crisis ends, Leone generates a new one

"There goes the summer vacation," moaned a weary Christian Democratic leader last week, flipping off a television set at party headquarters and sinking back into a sofa. "We won't be able to see straight until fall. Even then, who knows?"

The reason for his dismay was the threat of a new political crisis that hit Italy just as the country was recovering from the tragic kidnaping and murder of former Premier Aldo Moro. Appearing on national television last week in the midst of World Cup soccer telecasts, white-thatched President Giovanni Leone, 69, a 34-year Christian Democratic political veteran and two-time former Premier, informed his "fellow Italians" in a heavy Neapolitan accent that he was resigning from the presidency.

Only once before had an Italian President left office prematurely--in 1964, when Antonio Segni resigned for reasons of health. Leone was bowing out almost seven months before his seven-year term was due to end because of the political storm that had blown up over accusations that he had been involved in payoffs and income tax irregularities. He insisted that he had been "an honest man" as President but his resignation was a recognition of political realities.

The charges dated back to discoveries two years ago that the Lockheed Corp., in order to sell 14 C-130 transport planes to the Italian air force, had paid a series of bribes between 1965 and 1968. Some of the bribes were directed to an Italian Premier code-named "Antelope Cobbler" in Lockheed memorandums. There were three Premiers during the time of the bribes: Leone, Moro and Mariano Rumor. All vigorously denied the accusations; Leone's denial was weakened, however, by his close friendship with the brothers Ovidio and Antonio Lefebvre, who have been accused of serving as Lockheed's bagmen and are currently on trial in connection with the payoffs. In addition, the muckraking left-wing magazine L'Espresso raised serious questions about Leone's tax returns, especially on the amount of property tax he paid on a palatial $850,000 villa, called Le Rughe,* which he built 20 miles northwest of Rome.

During most of his term as President, Leone was regarded as a benign, bantam-rooster fellow, who was blessed with a singularly beautiful wife. But he also had a fair number of political enemies, and one by one, as the scandal unfolded, they picked up the charges. Leone tried to ignore the demands, but then the Communists decided that "the resignation of the President would appear to be in order." Since Premier Giulio Andreotti and the Christian Democrats are able to govern only with Communist support, that was a challenge that Leone could not overcome.

An electoral assembly of 1,010, ineluding all parliamentary deputies and senators, along with delegates from Italy's 20 regions, must now select a successor. The vote could indeed run through the summer vacation: Leone, himself a compromise candidate, was elected in 1971 to succeed Giuseppe Saragat after 16 days of voting in which no fewer than 23 ballots were held.

Italian Presidents constitutionally do not succeed themselves; until his death last month, Aldo Moro was considered Leone's likely successor. Senate President Amintore Fanfani, a three-time Premier and unsuccessful presidential candidate in 1971, automatically assumed the post pro tempore, and the maneuvering will begin again.

Before the balloting starts at month's end, Christian Democrats must decide whether to fight for the post themselves or follow a custom in which the presidency alternates between a Christian Democrat and a representative of another party. If the governing party goes for it, Party Secretary Benigno Zaccagnini and Andreotti will be the most probable candidates. Socialist Francesco de Martino is a non-Christian Democratic possibility, since he is well known and respected by other parties. So is Ugo La Malfa, longtime leader of the smaller Republican Party.

The President, as head of state, has a largely ceremonial job; the Premier is head of government. Still, Leone's resignation produced political confusion, partly because there was no precedent for it, but also partly because the Christian Democrat-Communist relationship is so fragile.

In addition, Leone's decision came only eleven days before the onset of the "white semester," the final six months of a President's term, when he is constitutionally barred from dissolving parliament and calling an early general election. Leone's successor will not be bound by the white semester rule; meanwhile, there is also a tradition that Italian governments resign when a new President takes office, allowing him the option of re-appointing the old government or of calling for a new one. Political observers wondered last week whether, in a situation so unusual, Premier Andreotti's government could survive.

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The presidential resignation was not the only crisis confronting Italian televiewers last week. It also appeared for a time that hundreds of thousands of Romans might not see the World Cup soccer match between Italy and West Germany. A few hours before the match was to begin in Argentina, terrorists--presumably the Red Brigades again--blew up a power station that provides electricity for much of Rome. Working feverishly, technicians restored the power just in time for Romans to watch their national team play to a draw.

*Le Rughe means "wrinkles," from the land contours on which the house was built. Inevitably, that led Roman political observers to dub the scandal "Wrinklegate."

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