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routine rather than with conviction. Most of the concern has centered on the usual worry about radioactivity and the harm that the base might do to the tourist trade of Sardinia.
The popularity of the United States is a factor to consider in Italian politics. The people's liking for and trust in America has been a major resource for Italian politicians of the center and moderate right, who could win support by associating themselves with U.S. policies. Since the late 1960's the reporting on the war in Vietnam has made that association seem less desirable; on the other hands, a survey of Italian public opinion in 1972 showed extremely favorable reactions to President Nixon's initiatives for better relations with Peking and Moscow. In response to the question: "What country of the world is trying hardest to achieve peace?" the United States was far in the lead, being cited by 36%.
Italians have for the most part become internationalists. Informed opinions strongly supports European integration, which appeals to both Catholic and Socialist traditions. Even the leaders of the Italian Communist Party have swung around to acceptance of Italian membership in the European Communities (EC) and have worked to rally leftist groups of Eastern and Western Europe behind a policy of recognizing the EC's reality and strength. Italy also belongs to a number of international organizations: the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the General Agreement of Tariffs and Trade, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations. Soviet vetoes kept Italy—Hitler's ally in World War II—out of the United Nations until 1955, but since then Italy has been a full and active member. In 1972 the Foreign Ministry announced Italy's desire for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, claiming that it would help reduce the disparity between the nuclear and non-nuclear powers.
The old pursuit of international status has not entirely disappeared. In part, Italian diplomacy reflects a preoccupation with making an impression and winning respect and, in part, a natural desire to be informed and consulted, to be on the inside. The government particularly resents the formation of councils in NATO or on Middle Eastern affairs that include the United Kingdom and France but exclude Italy.
Italy consistently supported the British efforts to join the Common Market, and after British entry into the EC in 1972 the two nations united in advocating a more effective policy of assistance to the EC's own backward regions. As the country with most to gain from such a policy, Italy had long sounded this theme with little success, and in the United Kingdom it has apparently gained an important ally. In spite of bilateral alignments of this sort, however, Italy will probably continue in the forefront of those advocating more rapid progress toward European political union.
Italy's strong bias towards union is accompanied by a remarkable lack of interest in what is going on in Brussels, the European capital. Italian newspapers, except for a few in the industrial north, print very little about official activities or decisions there. Even the Italian representatives to meetings at Brussels seem to share this attitude; Signor Beniamino Olivi, who has been Spokesman (press officer) of the Commission at Brussels for more than a decade, has said, "It is notorious in Brussels that the Italians are the ones to know least about the questions being discussed." Italy has frequently failed to honor her obligations to the Common Market, and has been summoned before the Court of Justice more times than any other nation. The relative political importance of Common Market affairs in Italy is shown by the action of Signor Malfatti, who in 1972 resigned the position of President of the Commission to be a back-bench Deputy in Rome—a position more important for his political career than the highest executive post in Brussels.
Italy is the weakest bureaucratic link in the Common Market, and observers suspect that the country may miss out on many future benefits, such as aid to the south, simply by failing to meet ordinary administrative deadlines. This has happened in the past, as Signor Olivi has pointed out: "One of the great, historic mistakes made by Italy in the last decade was that of underestimating the fact that the Common Agricultural Policy, to have beneficial effects, requires immediate administrative processes in its implementation." As these were neglected, "Italian participation in the EEC's agricultural policy can be described as an accounting disaster."
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