Battle for Rome

Out of sight was the hammer & sickle. The party firebrands were unnaturally mild: gone were the outright attacks on the Vatican, the sneers at liberals. The crucial municipal elections in some 2,000 communities in southern Italy were only two weeks away, and Rome, the greatest prize, lay within the Reds' grasp.

Their deceptively innocent emblem was the Renaissance fac,ade of the Campidoglio, Rome's city hall, designed by Michelangelo and beloved by all Romans. They called their candidates' roster the Lista Cittadina--the citizens' list.

As their top candidate they picked an aging politician with a respected past, 83-year-old Francesco Nitti, a onetime pre-Fascist (1919-20) Premier of Italy. Their 80 city council candidates were neatly divided between 20 open Reds, 20 Nenni Socialists (who follow the Red line), and 40 fellow traveling "independents."

Collaborator. They let it be known that if their deputies won, they would choose as Rome's mayor a solid-jowled and prosperous lawyer named Giovanni Selvaggi. Selvaggi is well-fitted for the role of an unwitting Judas sheep. A pre-Mussolini liberal, he retired from politics during Fascism, built himself a fine legal practice while quietly opposing Mussolini. After the war, Premier de Gasperi made him high commissioner of Sicily, where he did a difficult job well.

A president of the Italian association of lawyers, he lives in a sumptuous, walled villa with his wife and grown son who is his law partner. A Catholic, he is also, like many Italians, anticlerical. No Communist, he thinks he can use, rather than be used by, the Reds to expedite the reforms that Rome badly needs--housing people who live in caves, purging municipal corruption, modernizing public services. "What has the Atlantic pact or what happens in Czechoslovakia to do with how Rome's local administration is run?" he asks, as he pours an interviewer cognac and coffee. Communists are old hands in dealing with men like Selvaggi.

Against this new Popular Front, Premier de Gasperi's once solid anti-Communist vote is split asunder (TIME, April 21). With the Republicans-Demochristians presenting one ticket and the monarchist-fascists another, the Reds hope to slip through the weakened defenses and take the Eternal City.

Help. Last week strong allies came to De Gasperi's aid. After a month of talks in London, the U.S. and Great Britain awarded Italy virtually all the top civil administrative jobs in the allied zone of Trieste, the area passionately disputed by Italy and Yugoslavia. His government's popularity was considerably bolstered.

Threatened in its home, the Roman Catholic Church also counterattacked. The bishops of Campania issued a warning to the faithful: they must 1) be sure to vote; 2) vote against Communists and their allies or be "excluded from receiving the benefits of the holy sacraments."

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