AN UNEXPECTED ALLIANCE: US POLICY REGARDING FORMATION OF THE CENTER-LEFT COALITION IN ITALY

Abstract

The Cold War became a significant factor influencing not only the foreign, but also the domestic politics of Italy. The main problem of Italy as a member of NATO in the middle of the 20th century left pro-Soviet parties became popular, and the ruling Christian Democratic Party may lose power. The alliance of Christian Democrats with the Socialists became an unexpected means of solving the current problems, and the US, by supporting this alliance, demonstrated the ability to be flexible in conducting foreign policy towards its allies. The main thesis of the article is that such unexpected alliance between the Christian Democracy Party and the Socialist Party was not an improvised action, but a long-term strategy. The formation of the first center-left government in First Republic of Italy is referred to 1962. However, the idea of such alliance had emerged a few years before, in 1958, and it was discussed between Italian and American governments on numerous occasions. The main shift towards an adoption of coalition between Christian Democrats and Socialists was the failure of Fernando Tambroni’s government in 1960, the last government with the center-right and far-right parties at the power. From this moment for many, and for U.S. government as well, become evident the impossibility of sticking to the old strictly anti-left policy. The Socialist Party itself had gone through a long evolution process. Being a pro-Soviet party immediately after the WW2, it later cut off its ties to the Soviet Union and the Communist Party of Italy, and even rejected revolution as the way to reform society, preferring the long way of step-by-step changes. A new Socialist approach to the parliamentary democracy allowed it to become a part of ruling coalition soon after the inner reforms of the Socialist Party. It was hard to imagine in the beginning of the Cold War that the U.S. government would ever seek the support from the Socialist Party of Italy. But in the beginning of 1960’s, considering the changes in electoral preferences, the question of Italian Socialists become the focal point in the U.S. policy towards the Italy.