No. 33

Since the end of the Fascist era 27 years ago, the Italians have had a new government on the average of every 9.8 months. But now the pace is quickening. Government No. 32, which was headed by Christian Democrat Mariano Rumor, lasted a mere 100 days. Last week former Treasury Minister Emilio Colombo, another Christian Democrat, had barely formed Government No. 33 before many Italian politicians were predicting that it would fall almost as fast.

The current cause of Italy's political crisis is a bitter dispute between the moderate Social Democrats and the left-leaning Socialists. They are both members of the four-party Center-Left coalition that has ruled Italy fitfully for most of the last seven years. The dispute is over the fact that the Socialists, while supposedly committed to the coalition's doctrine of noncooperation with Italy's large Communist Party, often go right ahead and make cozy political deals with the Communists on the local level.

Tired of the quarreling, Rumor resigned in early July. After nearly a month of futile negotiations to form a new government, President Giuseppi Saragat turned to Colombo, who is a highly regarded economist but nobody's idea of a forceful politician. To everyone's surprise, the scholarly bachelor formed a government that was virtually the same as the one at which Rumor had thrown up his hands. But by week's end Socialist leaders were hinting that Colombo might not last more than three or four months.

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