Editing Mario Scelba (section)

===1948 election===
{{main|1948 Italian general election}}
The [[1948 Italian general election|general election in April 1948]] was heavily influenced by the [[Cold War]] confrontation between the [[Soviet Union]] and the United States. After the Soviet-inspired February 1948 Communist coup in [[Czechoslovakia]], the US became alarmed about Soviet intentions and feared that, if the leftist coalition were to win the elections, the Soviet-funded PCI would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Corke|first=Sarah-Jane|date=1 May 2006|title=George Kennan and the Inauguration of Political Warfare|url=https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/JCS/article/view/2171|journal=Journal of Conflict Studies|language=en-US|volume=26|issue=1|issn=1715-5673}}</ref>

The election campaign remained unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's republican history. The DC propaganda became famous in claiming that in [[Communist countries]] "children sent parents to jail", "children were owned by the state", "people ate their own children", and claiming disaster would strike Italy if the left-wing would take power.<ref name=tim120448>[http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,779791,00.html Show of Force]{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''Time Magazine'', 12 April 1948</ref><ref>[http://jcgi.pathfinder.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,798374,00.html How to Hang On]{{Dead link|date=March 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, ''Time Magazine'', 19 April 1948</ref>

As interior minister, Scelba announced that the government had 330,000 men under arms, including a special shock force of 150,000 ready to take on [[communists]] if they would try to make troubles on election day.<ref name=tim120448/> The election was eventually won with a comfortable margin by the DC; the DC defeated the left-wing coalition of the [[Popular Democratic Front (Italy)|Popular Democratic Front]] (FDP) that comprised the PCI and the [[Italian Socialist Party]] (PSI).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mistry|first=Kaeten|date=May 2011|title=Re-thinking American intervention in the 1948 Italian election: beyond a success–failure dichotomy|url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-italy/article/div-classtitlere-thinking-american-intervention-in-the-1948-italian-election-beyond-a-successfailure-dichotomydiv/1BF2C98295B5449978091FA2EBF77383|journal=Modern Italy|language=en|volume=16|issue=2|pages=179–194|doi=10.1080/13532944.2011.557224|s2cid=143941092 |issn=1353-2944|url-access=subscription}}</ref> After the election, De Gasperi continued ruling without the PCI, which had been in government from June 1944, when the first post-war government was formed, until May 1947, while Scelba kept his role as Minister of the Interior.<ref>[http://www.governo.it/i-governi-dal-1943-ad-oggi/i-legislatura-8-maggio-1948-4-aprile-1953/governo-de-gasperi-v/3228 Governo De Gasperi V], governo.it</ref>