Opposition in Western Europe by Kolinsky Eva

Author:Kolinsky, Eva
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781317362296
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

(b) Extra-parliamentary opposition

The first point that requires stating about opposition in the extra-parliamentary arena is that this has been far from hegemonised by the PCI as the main opposition at the parliamentary level. This is especially the case in the period under examination, which has seen the growth of extra-parliamentary opposition in the proper sense in different forms: the student movement and the New Left from the late 1960s, the appearance and persistence of terrorism and more recently the peace movement and the ecologists, both late arrivals in Italy compared with many other West European countries. The fragmentation of opposition in Italy has been all the more evident outside the Parliament than within it. If the PCI came close to hegemonising opposition in the extra-parliamentary arena, that was more during the earlier half of the post-war period when the dominant theme in interpreting Italian politics was that of the ‘institutionalised sub-cultures’, the Catholic and the Marxist — the DC in government representing one, the PCI in opposition representing the other.

There would appear to be some connection between this appearance of new forms of extra-parliamentary opposition and the strategy shift of the PCI in the 1970s. In so far as the ‘historic compromise’ involved or was perceived as moving the party towards the centre-Left, one may speak of ideological space being vacated on the left of the spectrum. This seems confirmed by the fact that all the extra-parliamentary forces mentioned above (except for the ‘black’ version of terrorism) relate to this side of the spectrum. ‘Black’ terrorism’s appearance during this period (especially in the early 1970s) complicated the MSI’s pursuit of respectability, for while the former was fairly autonomous the latter chose not to disassociate itself. So far as the New Left is concerned, it arose in part as a protest against the perceived prevalence of orthodoxy in the traditional parties of the Left;65 while subsequently the ‘historic compromise’ line and the PCI’s pursuit of an alliance with the parties in government, including the DC, was an object of bitter attack from the radical or extreme Left including ‘Red’ terrorist groups. The uneasy and tense relationship between the PCI and these extra-parliamentary forces, reflected in the Parliament, as already noted, was replicated more volubly and visibly outside it. In this sense, it is possible to see this pattern as involving political rivalry within the same sector of the ideological spectrum. For instance, the Radicals as a self-styled antiestablishment movement have been able to relate more comfortably to some of these new forms of extra-parliamentary opposition than the PCI — such as with the peace movement, with the new verdi (greens) and, somewhat controversially, with some terrorist figures. It has only been since the PCI’s strategy change of 1980 that it has been able to establish new linkages, mainly with the peace movement following the issue of the nuclear base at Comiso in Sicily. One may identify the new line of the ‘democratic alternative’ as involving some kind of shift back away

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