[1][2] In Italy, the Christian Democracy (DC), led by Alcide De Gasperi, were losing popularity, and feared that the leftist coalition would take power.
[3] On 1 May, the nation was thrown into crisis by the murder of eleven leftist peasants (including four children) at an International Workers' Day parade in Palermo by Salvatore Giuliano and his gang.
Prior to his mysterious killing in state custody, Guiliano lieutenant Gaspare Pisciotta implicated the DC directly for the massacre through Ministry of the Interior Mario Scelba.
[11] Ramadier received warnings from the US Ambassador Jefferson Caffery that the presence of Communists in the government would lead to the blocking of American aid, or perhaps worse.
As the great French strikewave of 1947 began, a rumor circulated among the ministers in Ramadier's party, the SFIO, that the Communists were plotting a coup for 1 May, and the military was secretly mobilized.
[15] Communist ministers were dismissed from several other European governments in 1947[16][example needed] and in all cases the move was dictated by a desire to comply with the wishes of the United States.
On 30–31 May, Ferenc Nagy—the democratically elected prime minister of Hungary—resigned from office under threats from the Hungarian Communist Party, which accused him of involvement in an alleged anti-state plot.
He received the Communists' ultimatum while travelling abroad in Switzerland, and the latter threatened to harm Nagy's son if the Prime Minister did not resign or return to Hungary to face trial.