The birth of the Republic
In their first national vote with women, Italians narrowly choose a republic over the monarchy, and an assembly of rival parties writes an anti-fascist constitution.
- Referendum istituzionale del 2 giugno 1946: risultati — Ministero dell'Interno, Eligendo – Archivio storico delle elezioni (1946)
- Constitution of the Italian Republic — Assemblea Costituente, Senato della Repubblica (1947)
- A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 — Paul Ginsborg, Penguin (1990)
On 2–3 June 1946, Italians voted in a referendum on the monarchy, discredited by its accommodation with Fascism and the flight of 8 September. Women voted nationally for the first time. The republic won with about 54.3% to 45.7%; the North and Centre voted heavily for it, while the South and Naples backed the king. King Umberto II, who had reigned for barely a month, left for exile in Portugal.
- Referendum istituzionale del 2 giugno 1946: risultati — Ministero dell'Interno, Eligendo – Archivio storico delle elezioni (1946)
- A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 — Paul Ginsborg, Penguin (1990)
A Constituent Assembly, elected the same day, drafted a constitution that came into force on 1 January 1948. Its first article declares that “Italy is a democratic Republic founded on labour”, and it renounces war as a tool of aggression against other peoples or a way to settle international disputes. In the 1948 election, a bitter Cold War contest, the Christian Democrats defeated the Communist–Socialist alliance and began more than four decades in government.
- Constitution of the Italian Republic — Assemblea Costituente, Senato della Repubblica (1947)
- A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988 — Paul Ginsborg, Penguin (1990)
Why it matters today
2 June, Republic Day, is the national holiday, and the 1948 Constitution is widely respected as the one thing most Italians agree on, born of a compromise between Catholics, communists, socialists and liberals. The narrow, regionally split result also foreshadowed a country where the North and South often vote differently.