Latest Italian Government Looks Like Predecessors

His patience rewarded, Prime Minister-designate Ciriaco De Mita ended a monthlong political interregnum Wednesday with the successful formation of a new Italian government.

As formally presented by De Mita to President Francesco Cossiga, Italy’s 48th postwar government closely resembles many of its predecessors.

In his first bid for what has been a revolving-door office, De Mita reassembled a five-party coalition of the dominant Christian Democrats he heads; the Socialists, under maverick former Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, and three minor parties, the Social Democrats, the Liberals and the Republicans. The coalition has ruled Italy since 1981.

After prolonged negotiations with his coalition partners, De Mita named a 32-member Cabinet that retained most of the ministers from the outgoing government of fellow Christian Democrat Giovanni Goria.

Goria himself, who resigned three times in eight strife-torn months, is gone and may eventually replace De Mita as leader of the Christian Democrats, who have dominated all four dozen Italian governments since the end of World War II.

Former Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti remains as foreign minister in the De Mita government, while Amintore Fanfani, another former prime minister, moves from Interior to Budget in a Cabinet dominated by Christian Democrats but spiced with a careful, negotiated mingling of politicians from other parties.

Once again on the outside looking in, however, is the largest Communist Party in the West. The Communists are Italy’s second-largest vote getters but have not shared national power for more than 40 years.

A balding and unprepossessing man from Italy’s south, De Mita, 60, has proved to be someone who makes up with preparation what he lacks in charisma. His government is the product of lengthy negotiations based on a bulky program of proposals that promise institutional and economic reforms.

De Mita trained as a lawyer but has been a professional politician for 25 years, serving first in Parliament and then in a number of ministerial posts until becoming party chief in 1982.

The prospect of reforms that would modernize the legislature and the central government and give additional power to Italian local governments has won the support of De Mita’s coalition partners, and also, in large measure, agreement from the Communists.

Reform is more honored in theory than practice in the present Italian political free-for-all. If enacted, the sum of the changes De Mita envisions would streamline Italian institutions and make them more compatible with those of Italy’s economic and political allies as the European Communities move closer to unification in coming years.

Beyond the reforms, De Mita does not envision basic policy shifts for a country that has enjoyed the fastest growth of any in Western Europe this decade.

An early priority of the new government, though, will be to reduce a yawning budget deficit--12% of the gross domestic product--that threatens renewed inflation. Italy’s role as a supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the likely new home of American fighter-bombers invited to leave Spain should not change under the new government.

De Mita’s professed long-shot goal is a government effective enough and stable enough to survive the four years until the next national elections. Its first test will come in a pro forma vote of confidence next week in a Parliament where the coalition partners hold a comfortable majority.