Rumor Has It

Italy found itself with a new government last week, its 27th since 1945 and quite possibly its most unwieldy. Incoming Premier Mariano Rumor named 27 Cabinet members, a postwar record. They will be supported by perhaps as many as 57 under secretaries (up from 40), vying for cars, chauffeurs, parking spaces and all the other perquisites of office. There were reasons for the glut. Rumor was intent on maintaining as broad a base of political support as possible, and his crowded Cabinet represented nearly every faction in his lumpy Center-Left government. Despite the skepticism that greeted the crazy-quilt coalition, however, the formation of a government was no small achievement in itself, in view of recent intraparty strife and rising domestic turbulence. Last week strikes and demonstrations by millions of workers and students broke out from Sicily to the industrial North.

A majority of the Cabinet posts, as expected, went to Rumor's Christian Democratic Party. The C.D.'s 17 Ministers represent every shading in the party's broad spectrum, from the so-called New Force on the far left and the Fanfanani (followers of former Premier Amintore Fanfani) to Rumor's own moderate rightists. The wildly fragmented Socialists picked up a total of nine ministries, including foreign affairs for veteran Socialist Leader Pietro Nenni, 77. The deputy premiership, too, went to a Socialist--Francesco de Martino, who is Nenni's subordinate in the party but has now become his superior in the government. Only the far-out leftists were unrepresented. The Republicans, third and smallest party in the coalition, picked up one ministry.

Once his Cabinet was sworn in by President Giuseppe Saragat at the Palazzo Quirinale last week, Rumor continued work on the policy statement that he will present to the Parliament. He will almost certainly reaffirm Italy's commitment to NATO, call for reform of university and school laws and press for increases in worker pensions. Rumor's skill in allotting posts across the coalition's entire range assures him of support from about 360 of the chamber's 630 deputies. All his agility as a compromiser may prove useless, however, unless he can quickly produce the social reforms that Italy so urgently needs.

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