Forlani Gives Up

The scandal proves too much

For 17 days, Arnaldo Forlani had tried to resolve Italy's latest political crisis as if the scandal that caused it could be ignored. Last week he gave up the effort to find enough support among five political parties to succeed himself as the leader of Italy's 41st government in 35 years. Italians thus settled in for a prolonged period of political paralysis brought on by allegations that a 953-member secret Masonic group, the P2 Lodge, included some of the nation's political, military and business elite--and three of Forlani's Cabinet ministers. Police have accused some members of the lodge of offenses such as espionage, tax fraud, illegal currency dealings, even planning to undermine the state. Christian Democrat Forlani knew that his bid to form a new government was hopeless when he was told by Giovanni Spadolini, leader of the small but respected Republican Party, that an essential preliminary to forming a new Cabinet was "to shed full light on the P2 affair, to take all necessary measures needed to dissolve the lodge, center of pollution of national life, secret, perverse and corrupting."

Surprisingly, it was Spadolini, 56, a former political science professor and journalist with a reputation for rectitude, who was chosen by President Sandro Pertini as the next candidate for Prime Minister--only the third non-Christian Democrat in 35 years asked to form a government. The first two failed. Despite the esteem in which he is held, he was not given a much better chance to succeed than Forlani. Whatever the outcome, though, the new mandate virtually guaranteed that the crisis would drag on, as repercussions from the Masonic affair shake the nation's Establishment.

Until now, arrest warrants have been issued for only two people: P2 Lodge Grand Master Licio Gelli, who fled the country and is believed to be in Uruguay, and Colonel Antonio Viezzer, former head of a government intelligence service, who has been detained. But there was little doubt that other arrests will follow.

Colonel Luciano Rossi of the Treasury Police shot and killed himself June 5 after accusations that he had passed state secrets to Gelli. The next day, onetime Minister of Foreign Trade Gaetano Stammati was admitted under an assumed name to a Milan hospital after suffering a heart attack. Listed as a lodge member, Stammati had been questioned about huge pay offs on oil deals with Saudi Arabia. Rome magistrates have so far advised 260 officials on the P2 list that they are being investigated. Fifteen of Italy's top generals and admirals have "gone on vacation," a euphemism for temporary suspension, because they were named as lodge members. If all of officials said to be linked to P2 are suspended from duty, as one government committee recommends, two Cabinet ministers, three under secretaries, 136 members of the armed forces and police and 54 high civil servants would have to take a holiday.

In the meantime, a three-man parliamentary commission is to determine whether the P2 Lodge was indeed a secret organization and therefore illegal under the constitution. Some 520 other Masonic lodges exist legally in Italy; their membership lists are available to police on request. The authorities are moving slowly to establish a firm legal footing from which to deal with the ramifications of the Masonic affair. The political consequences are just beginning to be felt. qed

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