The Sicilian Elections in Italy

Abstract

O N JUNE 5 of last year, 2,322,616 Italian men and women went to the polls in Sicily to elect the Third Regional Assembly. The electoral campaign and the results, which involved almost one-tenth of the total Italian electorate, were closely attended by all party leaders, for the Sicilian elections, although colored by local traditions and local issues, were the first large-scale indication of the Italian political mood since the national elections of June, 1953. Hard on the heels of the Sicilian election the government of Mario Scelba at Rome fell. For many months dissatisfaction with the coalition government of the Christian Democratic party and its three (later two) minor party allies had been voiced, while rumors of an opening to the left with the support of Pietro Nenni's Socialist party increased. At the time of the writing of this paper Antonio Segni had just succeeded in patching up differences within the Christian Democratic party and placating the demands of the allied Democratic Socialist and Liberal parties, while the Republicans agreed to stand by loyally, to form a new Italian government. Is a fundamental realignment of Italian politics in the offing? Will Italian socialism, baffled, divided, and submerged in the past, finally free itself from the Communist party in the present? Can the big, unwieldy Christian Democratic party continue to hold together all the disparate elements which contribute to its strength, keep its minor party allies in line, and flirt with the Socialists?