Signor Fanfani's new spanner in the works

NICE GOINGS-ON, as ever, in the Italian political arena. The fine Italian hand of Signor Amintore Fanfani is never far from the control switch of both his own Christian Democrat Party and the Government generally. Last week he reached out againand the Government toppled. If Signor Fanfani was not solely responsible, he certainly did his share.
Immediate cause of the crisis was a Socialist-backed Bill to start State-run nursery schools. The Right Wing of the Christian Democrats oppose this because, then contend, the schools would be in competition with private schools run for the most part by monks or nuns.
The Bill was defeated in a private ballot by 250 to 221 votes. This meant that 140 members of Premier Akio Moro's own Centre-Left Coalition Government h a d voted against him. He resigned.
Whatever the full extent of Signor Fanfani's role in this latest crisis, it followed, significantly, what he himself wryly described as a "friendly warning" he delivered to Premier Moro only a few days before the Government fell.
Earlier, Signor Fanfani had resigned as Foreign Minister and gone back to his regular job, teaching economics at Rome University. But not full time, by any means . . .
Within the ruling Christian Democrat (Catholic) Party, Signor Fanfani leads a powerful Leftist faction known as the "Fanfaniani", which has the backing of about 23 per cent of the Christian Democrats, Like Signor Fanfani himself, it makes a point of never being ignored.
Signor Fanfani can be termed a jack-in-box among Italian politicians. He may sometimes be down, but invariably he bobs up again. He resigned as Foreign Minister to demonstrate, he said, that he did not share anti-American or pro-Communist statements attributed to his old friend, Signor Giorgio La Pira, former Mayor of Florence. A devout Catholic and noted Christian Democrat, Signor La Pira nevertheless has strong Leftist views.
Signor Fanfani had been roundly criticised for passing on, while President of the United Nations General Assembly, alleged peace-feelers Signor La Pira said had been made to him while he was visiting Hanoi by the North Vietnam leader, Ho Chi Minh. Hanoi subsequently denied the whole thing.
Then, within days of resigning as Foreign Minister, Signor Fanfani flung into the Italian political works the sort of spanner which he always keeps handy in his knapsack. He announced that the price of unity within Premier Moro's Christian Democrat ranks would be a slice of government power for the "Fanfaniani".
Premier Moro, who had himself replaced Signor Fanfani as Foreign Minister, had -foreseen merely a simple Cabinet reshuffle following the Fanfani resignation. Signor Fanfani, however, wanted some of his followers included in the Centre-Left Cabinet, and also more power for his faction in the actual leadership of the Christian Democrat Party. This was Signor Fanfani's "friendly warning" to his chief.
WHAT HAS NOW developed is a battle between Signor Fanfani and Premier Moro for the party leadership. Twice in the past, Signor Fanfani has been Premier. Rome's leading newspaper II Messaggero has said that nothing will satisfy him today but "a totality of power".
All this has been happening when the Nenni Socialists and the Social Democrats, who were once one party, are nearing reunification and could become in themselves a serious threat to the Christian Democrat leadership.
What will follow Premier Moro's resignatiOn remains to be seen. but if the ultimate alternative proves to be an emergency general electionthe next normal one is not due until 1968-the only party that stands to gain is the powerful Communist Party. At the last general election it gained a cool one million new votes-mainly at the expense of the Christian Democrats. Then led, let it be noted, by Signor Amintore Fanfani.
A FERRARA businessman, 80-year-old Mario Magrini, who died on April 19, 1964, willed his £270,000 fortune to Pope Paul. The Pope waived the inheritance in favour of a seminary in Ferrara, which Magrini had named in the event of the Holy Father not wanting the fortune himself.
If he hadn't, Pope Paul might have found himself defendant in a legal action brought by Magrini's closest relatives, some fourth cousins. Challenging the seminary's right to the fortune, they claim Magrini was a religious maniac who wanted to buy forgiveness for his sins through "an inadmissible barter between earthly goods and divine justice-as poetic a piece of pleading as I've come across.
The relatives also claim that Magrini went to church several times a day, always carrying a pistol for fear of "imaginery attackers", and dressed in worn clothes which he disinfected in petrol when he returned home.
Lawyers for the seminary admit that Magrini was known as a miser who was afraid of thieves, but that he was completely sane and extremely competent in handling his business affairs.
The case has been adjourned. There is, by the way, a backlog of only 1,700,000 cases awaiting decisions in Italy at present.
* CITIZENS IN TURIN are urging city councillors to name a street or square after the late Pope John. Requests began pouring in immediately after the Pope's death in 1963 and have mounted steadily.
The councillors are willing, but there are a couple of snags. One is a law which decrees that a person must have been dead for 10 years before his name can go up on a public thoroughfare. The authorities are willing to bypass this, but there's another more difficult one.
Pope John's rank entitles him to an important locationand there isn't one available. "We cannot put this beloved Pope's name to a small street or in a minor suburb," a council spokesman says. "We are now studying a list of new major avenues, roads or squares to be opened this year, and we hope to find One really worthy of bearing Pope John's name."
Among nine other people, dead for less than 10 years, that Turin aims to honour is the late President Kennedy.