Andreotti Gives Up Coalition Bid in Italy

Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti on Wednesday gave up his attempt to form a new coalition government, probably opening the way for parliamentary elections a year ahead of schedule.

The 68-year-old prime minister-designate revealed his decision to President Francesco Cossiga on Wednesday night during a presidential reception marking the 30th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Communities.

Andreotti, who has served five times as prime minister in the 1970s, told Cossiga during a 20-minute private meeting that he was unable to resolve a dispute between his dominant Christian Democratic Party and the Socialist Party of caretaker Prime Minister Bettino Craxi.

Craxi plunged the government into crisis three weeks ago when he abruptly resigned after rejecting an earlier agreement that he would assist in an orderly turnover of the prime ministership to a Christian Democrat. Craxi complained that the Christian Democrats had threatened him with “ultimatums.”

The Socialist prime minister served 3 1/2 years, longer than any leader since World War II. Craxi presided over a five-party coalition in which the Christian Democrats, although dominant, had been forced to give him the leadership role because the much smaller Socialist Party controls the vital swing vote among the non-Communist groups in the Parliament.

Opposition from Socialists

Andreotti had set out to re-establish the same five-party coalition but ran into immediate opposition from the Socialists, who said they would accept other Christian Democrat leaders but not him. After finally consenting to Andreotti’s attempt to re-establish the coalition, the Socialists, Social Democrats and Liberals in the former government raised even stronger objections to Andreotti’s goal of skirting four crucial referendums that were scheduled to be held in June.

The most critical of the referendums concerns Italy’s future nuclear power program, which the three smaller parties want to scrap and the Christian Democrats want to re-examine and continue. Polls have shown that a referendum to scrap further construction of nuclear power plants probably would succeed.

After his meeting with President Cossiga, Andreotti said that he had tried to get around the questions of the referendums by generalizing and offering a legislative program that would make them unnecessary. But the Socialists at a meeting Wednesday afternoon turned down that proposal.

“There was nothing left for me to do but put back into the drawer the government program that I had prepared and ask the president of the republic to relieve me of the mandate,” he told reporters.

Not ‘Irreplaceable’

Asked if there was any hope that Cossiga might name another prime minister-designate who might succeed in forming a government, Andreotti said, “In my life I have never felt myself to be irreplaceable; therefore, because I have not found consent does not mean it is not possible.”

Cossiga, also a Christian Democrat, is widely expected to abandon the search for a short-term political solution to the crisis and call for new elections a year ahead of their scheduled June, 1988, date. However, he has the option of naming a new candidate to go over the same ground covered by Andreotti in a search for a rejuvenated coalition to serve until the 1988 election.

Cossiga’s spokesman said that the president will begin consulting the nation’s political leadership this afternoon, a process that might take several days, before deciding on his next step.

If Cossiga decides on early elections, the referendums to which the Christian Democrats object automatically would be canceled and new petitions would have to be circulated calling on the next government to hold them.

Surprise in Timing

Andreotti surprised political commentators with the timing of his announced failure. Although few thought he would succeed, he had been expected to delay his announcement because of an unhappy combination of circumstances: the grave condition of 91-year-old former President Sandro Pertini, Italy’s most beloved political figure, and the heavy program of celebrations of the anniversary of the Treaty of Rome.

Pertini collapsed Monday at the funeral of air force Gen. Licio Giorgieri, assassinated last week by terrorists who cited his role in the U.S. “Star Wars” space defense program.