Election of the Constituent Assembly in Italy in 1946
The election for the Assemblea Costituente ( constituent assembly of Italy) took place on June 2, 1946 . It was the first national election after the end of World War II and the first free democratic election since 1921 (in October 1922, Benito Mussolini who seized power and a fascist regime built). For the first time women were also eligible to vote.
Result
The strongest party was the Christian Democratic Democrazia Cristiana (DC) with 35% or 207 seats, followed by the Partito Socialista Italiano di Unità Proletaria (PSIUP) (Italian Socialist Party of Proletarian Unity) with 21% or 115 seats. The Communists (PCI) came close to 19% with 104 seats. The National Democratic Union (UDN), which formed a coalition of various right-wing liberal and monarchist parties, had 41 seats to 7%, followed by the Front of the Ordinary Man (UQ), a right-wing liberal and populist rallying movement of former fascists with 5% and 30 seats respectively. The Partito Repubblicano Italiano (PRI) was the sixth strongest party with 4% (23 seats). The monarchist Freedom National Block (BNL) had 16 seats with 3% . The left-liberal action party (PdA) (named after the revolutionary movement in the Risorgimento led by Giuseppe Garibaldi ) got 7 seats with one percent. The remaining 13 seats were held by regional parties (556 seats in total).
Government Formation and Consequences
DC, PSIUP, PCI and PRI formed a coalition government under the Christian Democratic Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi . According to the resistance coalition led by the communists during the war against the occupation of northern and central Italy by Nazi Germany (called Resistancea ). The PdA, which also took part in the anti-fascist resistance, dissolved: the right wing went to the PRI and the left to the PSIUP. In 1947 communists and socialists left the government in view of the looming Cold War and ran for the next election as an electoral alliance.
referendum
A referendum was held on the same day on the question of whether the monarchy should be retained. 54.3% voted against and for the republic that has existed since then ( Republic of Italy ).
Footnotes
