Craxi Stalled in His Effort to Restore Italian Coalition

Demands by Italy’s Republican Party on Tuesday for a role in government decision-making and revisions in the nation’s foreign policy stalled Prime Minister-designate Bettino Craxi’s attempts to reassemble a coalition government.

The government crisis appeared likely to continue through the week, because Craxi plans to leave today to fly to Washington for President Reagan’s summit with Atlantic Alliance leaders in New York on Thursday. Craxi probably will not return to Rome until Friday at the earliest.

Republican leader Giovanni Spadolini, whose resignation as defense minister over Craxi’s handling of the Achille Lauro affair triggered the collapse of the 26-month-old government, met with Craxi for more than an hour Tuesday without resolving their differences.

Spadolini characterized the talks as “preliminary” and said there remained “questions upon which the Republican Party needs quick clarification.”

If the five-party coalition that Craxi ruled in his first government is to be reassembled, Spadolini stressed, it will have to be in a more “collegial” atmosphere. The Republicans have suggested an all-party executive committee of Cabinet members to consult before major decisions are taken.

Spadolini Outraged

Spadolini was outraged that Craxi, a Socialist, and Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti, a leader of the dominant Christian Democrat Party, failed to consult him before releasing Abul Abbas, a Palestinian leader identified by the United States as the mastermind of the Achille Lauro hijacking. Abbas, who left Italy for Yugoslavia, has denied that he knew that the cruise ship was to be hijacked and said his only role was in persuading the four Palestinian hijackers to surrender in Egypt.

Spadolini also said after the preliminary meeting with Craxi that the new government must take into account “new developments in the Mediterranean and in Italy’s Euro-Atlantic role.” The remark was interpreted as a call by the pro-U.S., pro-Israel, anti-PLO leader for closer ties with the United States and Israel and more reserve in dealing with PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, whose friendship Craxi and Andreotti have cultivated.

But in encouraging Craxi’s trip to the Reagan meeting, which he said he viewed “with extreme favor,” Spadolini indicated that he does not see his differences with the prime minister-designate as unbridgeable.

Since receiving the mandate Monday from President Francesco Cossiga to put together a new government, Craxi has met with the leaders of all major political parties and most of the minor ones as well.

Consensus on Government

With the exception of the Communist Party, Italy’s second largest political grouping but never a power-sharer, there has been a consensus that the former five-party coalition should be reassembled to form the new government.

Although Craxi could muster a small parliamentary majority without the Republicans, it would not be strong enough to take pressing economic steps, such as a new budget, tax and social security measures backed by the old coalition.

After noting that “as happens with the ones you love, you fight often,” Spadolini told reporters he will meet with Craxi again when the prime minister-designate returns from New York.

Asked if the climate of his meeting with Craxi was cold, Spadolini said, “Since we are not in the polar Arctic Circle but in Rome, let’s drop atmospheric references and attend to the political problems, which are neither small nor simple.”