From: isopi@acf9.nyu.edu (Marco Isopi)
Subject: elezioni (repost)
Organization: New York University
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 09:10:23 GMT


From: clarinews@clarinet.com (CHARLES RIDLEY)

	ROME (UPI) -- Italians vote Sunday and Monday in national elections
some observers say could render the nation virtually ungovernable at a
time whenItaly needs a strong government to prepare it for European
union.
	``As a citizen and as head of state I am worried about the
governability of the country,'' President Francesco Cossiga said as the
election campaign ended.
	``At this moment Italy needs compactness, not experiments,''
Christian Democrat Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, 73, said. ``A sick
man does not put himself in the hands of a doctor who received his
medical degree the day before. Before putting themselves in different
hands, the Italian people should think carefully.''
	The cause for alarm was that with the collapse of the threat of a
communist takeover, Italy's 47.5 million electorate appeared likely to
spread its votes among a record array of 88 voting lists representing
factions that could not get together to form a majority government.
	A total of 9,013 candidates is competing for 630 seats in the Chamber
of Deputies and 315 seats in the Senate.
	Most of the lists were protest parties bidding for support from
Italians tired of the familiar parties and faces that have formed
Italy's 50 governments since World War II.
	The protest lists are dominated by so-called ``leagues,'' most of
which represent local interests. They have sprung up following the
success of the Lombardy League in the Milan area whose leader Sen.
Umberto Bossi, 50, wants to split Italy into three ``republics''.
	But the lists also include pensioners' and housewives' associations,
groups representing hunting and car-owner interests and the ``Party of Lo
e,'' headed by porno cabaret stars Moana Pozzi and Ilona ``Cicciolina''
Staller, who won a seat in Parliament with the Radical Party in the last
general elections in June, 1987.
	On the eve of the voting, an assassination of a police sergeant major
shocked the nation.
	Police said Sgt. Maj. Giuliano Guazzelli, 58, was riddled with
bullets on the outskirts of Agrigento as he was driving alone in his
small car to his home outside the city, near the southern coast of
central Sicily.
	Guazzelli had been involved in most of the major investigations of
Mafia activities in Agrigento and nearby towns for the past 20 years.
Investigators said the gunmen, in a stolen van, overtook Guazzelli's car
on a state highway, opened the rear doors of the van and riddled
Guazzelli's car with shotgun pellets and bursts of fire from a
Klashnikov assault rifle.
	Police said there was no doubt it was a Mafia killing.
	Guazzelli was the second victim of Mafia assassination in Sicily
since campaigning started. On March 12, Mafia gunmen assassinated
prominent Christian Democrat politician.
	Some observers say the only hope of averting what Christian Democrat
leaders have warned would be ``chaos'' is for the four parties of Prime
Minister Andreotti's outgoing coalition -- Christian Democrats,
Socialists, Liberals and Social Democrats -- to win 50 percent of the
popular vote, enough to form a majority government.
	In 1987 the four parties totaled 53.7 percent, but the erosion
expected from the scattering of the popular vote makes it unlikely they
will achieve 50 percent this time.
	If the four parties succeed in forming a majority, the indications
are the new government would be headed by Socialist leader Bettino
Craxi, 58, who headed two successive governments that lasted a record 3
1/2 years, from August 1983 to March 1987.
	Craxi insists he would take on the job only for the full five years
of the legislative term. If he achieved this, with full Christian
Democratic support, his government could tackle the urgent need for
constitutional reform, attempt to get the economy into shape for the
European Community's planned Monetary Union and continue the fight
against organized crime.
	Polling stations remain open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday and from 7
a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday. First result projections will emerge Monday
afternoon and final official results on Tuesday.

Newsgroups: soc.culture.italian