The 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 Italian Communist Party (PCI) would draw Italy into the Soviet Union's sphere of influence. The election campaign remained unmatched in verbal aggression and fanaticism in Italy's republican history. The Christian democratic 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. 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 the communists if they would try to make troubles on election day. However, the election was eventually won with a comfortable margin by the DC, that defeated the left-wing coalition of the Popular Democratic Front (FDP) that comprised the PCI and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). After the election, De Gasperi continued ruling without the communists, who 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. Reorganization of the police During his ministry, Scelba deeply reorganized the Italian police, starting with the expulsion of more than 8,000 former partisans, with the accusation of being communist insurgents. When he took office, the police's organization was so shoddy that Scelba exclaimed: "If I were communist, I would start a revolution tomorrow." During his rule, he transformed country's dishevelled police into a force of some 100,000 agents and established a riot squad, heavily armed and equipped with armoured cars and special jeep, called the Reparto Celere ("Fast Department"). He made himself known as a man of action against what he considered communist disorder. In doing so, Scelba was criticised also by many Christian democrats who disapproved his harsh methods. In 1952, he wrote the so-called "Scelba law", which introduced the crime of apology of fascism. Scelba had a conservative attitude toward certain issues such as scant bathing suits, public kissing and nude statues. Despite this and his single-minded concern for law and order, on socio-economic issues Scelba leaned left of centre