Italian Voters Deal Blow to Communists

Voters dealt a major blow to the Communists in Italy’s parliamentary election, while the long-dominant Christian Democrats and the Socialists scored gains, first results and projections indicated today as two days of voting ended.

Tough bargaining between Christian Democrats and Socialists appeared likely in fashioning this nation’s 47th government since World War II. The Socialists led the last coalition government, but the Christian Democrats have led or dominated every postwar Cabinet.

Elections were called a year early after a two-month political crisis that began in March, when Socialist Premier Bettino Craxi resigned as the head of a five-party coalition over a power-sharing dispute with the Christian Democrats.

Projections issued by the prestigious Doxa polling agency had the Christian Democrats holding their No. 1 position in the Chamber of Deputies with 34.1%, up from 32.9% in the last parliamentary election in 1983. In the Senate, the Christian Democrats were projected to win 33.3%, up from 32.4%.

The projections indicated the Socialists getting 14.5%, up from 11.4% in the lower house and increasing by a lesser margin in the Senate.

The Communists, Italy’s second largest party and the biggest Marxist party in the West, were projected to win 26.4% in the Chamber of Deputies, down from 29.9%, and 28.3% in the Senate, down from from 30.8%.