Italy’s Craxi and 5-Party Coalition Forced to Resign
Premier Bettino Craxi announced his resignation today and that of his five-party coalition Cabinet, Italy’s 45th government and at 3 1/2 years the longest lived since World War II.
Craxi was the nation’s first Socialist postwar premier.
In a nationally televised speech to the Senate, Craxi, 53, said he would submit the resignation immediately to President Francesco Cossiga.
The resignation has been forced on Craxi by the Christian Democrats, Italy’s largest party and the dominating force in Craxi’s coalition.
After his first government collapsed last June, Craxi’s coalition partners agreed to his return at the head of an almost identical government Aug. 1 in return for an understanding that Craxi would hand the premiership to a Christian Democrat in March. He is expected to stay on as caretaker premier.
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