Two Elections

Two elections have recently taken place in southern Europe—the parliamentary election in Italy and the presidential election in Portugal. Italy’s election solved nothing, while Portugal’s (combined with her own parliamentary election two months before) put an end, for the time being, to the constitutional development which started with General Spinola’s coup d’etat of April 25, 1974. Both elections raised more questions than they answered. The fate of these two countries, and the future of NATO’s southern flank, is still very much in the balance.

In Italy, the battered Christian Democrats once again emerged as the largest party. However, the Communists continued to make gains, even though their efforts to achieve a majority jointly with the Socialists failed. Comparing this election’s results, not with the regional elections of 1975, but with the more relevant national elections of 1972, we find that the Communists gained 5.6 percentage points in the Senate vote (for a gain of 22 Senate seats) and 7.3 percentage points in the vote for the Chamber of Deputies (for a gain of 48 seats). Some of these can be accounted for by the recently lowered voting age—21 for the Senate and 18 for the Chamber. As had been predicted, the Communists apparently took a large proportion of this newly enfranchised vote.

EK

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Erik von Kuehnelt-Leddihn

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Presidential Election

Two elections have recently taken place in southern Europe—the parliamentary election in Italy and the presidential election in Portugal. Italy’s election solved nothing, while Portugal’s (combined with her own parliamentary election two months before) put an end, for the time being, to the constitutional development which started with General Spinola’s coup d’etat of April 25, 1974. Both elections raised more questions than they answered. The fate of these two countries, and the future of NATO’s southern flank, is still very much in the balance.

In Italy, the battered Christian Democrats once again emerged as the largest party. However, the Communists continued to make gains, even though their efforts to achieve a majority jointly with the Socialists failed. Comparing this election’s results, not with the regional elections of 1975, but with the more relevant national elections of 1972, we find that the Communists gained 5.6 percentage points in the Senate vote (for a gain of 22 Senate seats) and 7.3 percentage points in the vote for the Chamber of Deputies (for a gain of 48 seats). Some of these can be accounted for by the recently lowered voting age—21 for the Senate and 18 for the Chamber. As had been predicted, the Communists apparently took a large proportion of this newly enfranchised vote.