On June 2, 1946, Italians went to the polls in the first free national vote in more than two decades. For the first time, women voted alongside men. For the first time in a free election, they were asked not only to elect a Constituent Assembly to write a new constitution but also to decide a fundamental question about the future of their country: should Italy remain a monarchy, under the House of Savoy, or become a republic?
The vote was close. When the results were announced on June 10, 12,717,923 Italians had voted for a republic, while 10,719,284 had voted to keep the monarchy. The republic won by a margin of just under two million votes—about 54% to 46%. But the aftermath was anything but smooth. The king, Umberto II, who had reigned for only 34 days, accused the government of fraud. Monarchist riots broke out in Naples and other southern cities. The government faced a tense and politically unstable situation, and a state of emergency was briefly declared in some areas. And the king, his reign over, was forced into exile, never to return.
The 1946 referendum was more than a vote on a form of government. It was a verdict on the House of Savoy’s role in the fascist regime, on the monarchy’s failure to prevent Mussolini’s rise to power, and on the king’s abandonment of Rome during the German occupation. It was also a vote with deep regional and social dimensions: the industrial north voted overwhelmingly for a republic, while the agrarian south remained more loyal to the monarchy, though the pattern was not absolute. And it was a vote that took place in the shadow of the civil war, the Allied occupation, and the beginning of the Cold War.
This article traces the history of the Italian monarchy from its association with fascism to its final collapse in 1946. It examines the referendum campaign, the contested results, and the subsequent exile of the Savoy family. And it explores how the referendum shaped the Italian Republic that emerged from the ashes of war and dictatorship.
The House of Savoy and the Rise of Fascism
The Italian monarchy had never been particularly popular. The House of Savoy, which had unified Italy in 1861 under King Victor Emmanuel II, was a Piedmontese dynasty that had imposed its rule on the rest of the peninsula through conquest and political maneuvering. Many Italians, particularly in the south and in the former Papal States, resented the monarchy as a foreign imposition. Republican and socialist movements had long sought to abolish the monarchy and establish a democratic republic.
But it was the monarchy’s relationship with fascism that sealed its fate. In October 1922, as Benito Mussolini’s fascist squads marched on Rome, King Victor Emmanuel III faced a choice: he could order the army to crush the coup, or he could invite Mussolini to form a government. He chose the latter. The king, who had been advised that the army might not remain loyal, feared a civil war. He also believed that Mussolini could be controlled and that the monarchy could use fascism as a bulwark against socialism.
The decision was catastrophic. Mussolini quickly consolidated power, abolished democratic institutions, and established a dictatorship. The king remained as head of state, but his role was largely ceremonial. He did nothing to oppose the regime’s repression, its racial laws, its alliance with Nazi Germany, or its disastrous entry into the Second World War. The monarchy became complicit in fascism by association and by inaction.
Victor Emmanuel III was not a strong or decisive figure. He was short (he stood just five feet tall), reserved, and uncomfortable in the public eye. He had a reputation for caution bordering on cowardice. During the First World War, he had visited the front lines frequently, earning some respect from the troops. But during the Second World War, he retreated to the royal estates, rarely appearing in public, and offering no resistance to Mussolini’s decisions.
The monarchy’s reputation suffered further during the war. In 1943, after the Allied invasion of Sicily, Victor Emmanuel III finally turned against Mussolini, dismissing him and ordering his arrest. But the king’s actions were widely seen as opportunistic, not principled. He had waited until the regime was collapsing before acting, and he had done nothing to prevent the war or to oppose the fascist alliance with Hitler.
The final blow came in September 1943. After the armistice, the king and his prime minister, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, left Rome, relocating to Brindisi under Allied protection. The king’s departure was widely condemned as an abandonment. He left behind not only the capital but also the army, the civil service, and the Italian people. From his new headquarters in Brindisi, the king ruled over a rump kingdom in the south while the north endured German occupation, fascist reprisals, and civil war.
By the time the war ended in 1945, the monarchy was discredited. Victor Emmanuel III was widely seen as a coward, a collaborator, and a symbol of the old regime that had led Italy to disaster. Anti-monarchist sentiment was particularly strong in the north, where the resistance movement had fought for liberation and where the king’s abandonment was still fresh in memory.
The Renunciation of Victor Emmanuel III
In the aftermath of the war, the Italian government faced intense pressure to hold the monarchy accountable. The anti-fascist parties, particularly the Communists and Socialists, demanded the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a republic. The Christian Democrats, the largest party, were divided: some favored a republic, others supported a constitutional monarchy under a new king.
Victor Emmanuel III, hoping to save the monarchy, attempted to sacrifice himself. On May 9, 1946, just weeks before the scheduled referendum, he formally abdicated in favor of his son, Umberto. The abdication was announced on the radio, and the former king went into exile in Egypt, where he died in 1947.
The abdication was a last-ditch attempt to separate the monarchy from its fascist past. Umberto II, known as “the May King” (Re di Maggio) because his reign lasted only a month, was seen by some as a fresh start. He had served as a general during the war, had been critical of Mussolini, and had remained in Italy after the armistice, unlike his father. But the damage had been done. The abdication came too late to change the public’s mind, and many saw it as a cynical maneuver to preserve the monarchy by sacrificing the discredited king.
The referendum went ahead as planned on June 2, 1946.
The Referendum Campaign: Monarchists vs. Republicans
The referendum campaign was intense and, at times, violent. Italy was still recovering from the war, and the divisions of the civil war—between partisans and fascists, between north and south, between the working class and the rural poor—were still raw. The vote was not only about the monarchy; it was about the kind of country Italy would become.
The republican campaign was led by the anti-fascist parties, particularly the Communists, Socialists, and Action Party, but also by republicans within the Christian Democrats. Their arguments were straightforward: the monarchy had collaborated with fascism, had abandoned Rome, and had disgraced Italy. A republic would be a clean break with the past, a democratic and modern state that could rebuild Italy’s international reputation. The republicans also emphasized that a republic would be more inclusive, giving all citizens—including women—a stake in the nation’s future.
The monarchist campaign was more defensive. Monarchists argued that the monarchy was a symbol of national unity, that it had existed for centuries, and that it had provided stability during times of crisis. They pointed to the king’s role in dismissing Mussolini in 1943, and to Umberto II’s wartime service. They warned that a republic would be dominated by the Communists, who were allied with the Soviet Union, and that Italy might fall behind the Iron Curtain. The monarchists also appealed to tradition, particularly in the south, where the monarchy retained significant support.
The role of the Church was significant but not monolithic. The Vatican did not officially endorse either side, but many Catholic priests and bishops privately favored the monarchy, which they saw as a bulwark against communism. However, the Christian Democratic Party, which was the largest party in the Constituent Assembly elections, was officially neutral on the referendum question. The party’s leader, Alcide De Gasperi, personally favored a republic, but he allowed his party members to vote according to their conscience.
Women voted for the first time in a national election. The decree extending suffrage to women had been issued in February 1945, and the 1946 referendum was the first opportunity for Italian women to exercise their right to vote. Women turned out in large numbers, and their vote is widely believed to have favored the republic, though precise breakdowns are unavailable. The participation of women was a transformative moment in Italian political history, and it signaled the emergence of a more inclusive democratic order.
June 2, 1946: The Vote
The referendum was held on Sunday, June 2, 1946. Polls opened at 6:00 AM and closed at 10:00 PM. Voting was conducted in 32,000 polling stations across the country, and the ballots were simple: voters were given two ballots, one for the referendum (with the choices “Monarchy” and “Republic”) and one for the election of the Constituent Assembly (with a list of party candidates).
The turnout was high: nearly 89% of eligible voters cast ballots. In the north, where the partisan resistance had been strongest, turnout was even higher, exceeding 90% in some regions. In the south, turnout was somewhat lower but still substantial.
The results were not announced immediately. The counting took several days, partly because of the complexity of the vote and partly because of allegations of fraud and irregularities. The official results were released on June 10, 1946:
Option Votes Percentage
Republic 12,717,923 54.27%
Monarchy 10,719,284 45.73%
The republic had won by just under two million votes—a clear but not overwhelming majority.
The regional breakdown was striking. The republic won overwhelmingly in the north, particularly in the industrial regions of Piedmont, Lombardy, and Emilia-Romagna, where support exceeded 60% and in some areas reached 80%. The monarchy won in the south, particularly in Campania, Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, where support for the monarchy often exceeded 60%. The city of Naples voted 80% for the monarchy; Milan voted 65% for the republic. The vote revealed a deep regional divide—industrial, urban, and secular north versus agricultural, rural, and more religious south—though the pattern was not absolute, and there were exceptions in both regions.
The monarchy also won in Rome and the surrounding region of Lazio, though by a narrower margin. Rome had been the capital of the kingdom, and the Vatican’s presence influenced the vote. But even in Rome, the republic won a substantial minority.
The Crisis: Fraud Allegations and the King’s Exile
The announcement of the results triggered a political crisis. Umberto II refused to accept the outcome, claiming that the vote had been marred by fraud and irregularities. Monarchist politicians alleged that ballots had been tampered with, that republican officials had intimidated voters, and that the counting process had been manipulated. The government, led by Christian Democrat Alcide De Gasperi, rejected the allegations and certified the results.
The aftermath was politically tense and briefly unstable. Monarchist protests erupted in Naples and other southern cities, and there were fears of a monarchist coup. The government took measures to maintain order, and a state of emergency was declared in some areas. But the monarchy lacked the popular support and the military force to overturn the results. The army, whose leadership was largely monarchist, remained loyal to the government, perhaps because they recognized that a coup would trigger a civil war.
Umberto II, facing the reality of defeat, left Italy shortly after the results were confirmed—on June 13, 1946—flying from Rome to Portugal. He went into exile, never to return. The Italian government issued a decree declaring the republic, and the Constituent Assembly was convened to draft a new constitution.
The king’s departure was not dignified. He left without making a formal abdication, and he took with him a substantial amount of royal property, which became a subject of legal dispute for decades. The government later passed laws confiscating the assets of the former royal family, though the Savoys were allowed to keep some personal property.
The monarchy’s final act was a whimper, not a bang. The House of Savoy, which had ruled Italy for 85 years, had ended not with a revolution or a foreign invasion, but with a democratic vote and a contested departure.
The Constituent Assembly and the Republican Constitution
The same day as the referendum, Italians also elected a Constituent Assembly of 556 delegates, tasked with writing a new constitution for the republic. The election results reflected the balance of power among the anti-fascist parties:
· Christian Democracy (DC): 207 seats
· Italian Socialist Party (PSI): 115 seats
· Italian Communist Party (PCI): 104 seats
· Other parties (Liberals, Action Party, Republicans, Monarchists, etc.): 130 seats
The Constituent Assembly met for the first time on June 25, 1946. Its first act was to elect a provisional head of state—Enrico De Nicola, a liberal jurist from Naples, who served as provisional president until the constitution was finalized. The assembly then set to work drafting the constitution, a task that would take nearly 18 months.
The drafting process was remarkable for its collaborationCollaboration
Full Description:The cooperation of local governments, police forces, and citizens in German-occupied countries with the Nazi regime. The Holocaust was a continental crime, reliant on French police, Dutch civil servants, and Ukrainian militias to identify and deport victims. Collaboration challenges the narrative that the Holocaust was solely a German crime. across Europe, local administrations assisted the Nazis for various reasons: ideological agreement (antisemitism), political opportunism, or bureaucratic obedience. In many cases, local police rounded up Jews before German forces even arrived.
Critical Perspective:This term reveals the fragility of social solidarity. When their Jewish neighbors were targeted, many European societies chose to protect their own national sovereignty or administrative autonomy by sacrificing the minority. It complicates the post-war myths of “national resistance” that many European countries adopted to hide their complicity.
Read more between parties that were otherwise deeply divided. The Communists, Socialists, and Christian Democrats, despite their ideological differences, worked together to produce a constitution that balanced competing principles: labor rights and private property; secularism and religious freedom; centralism and regional autonomy; parliamentary democracy and popular sovereignty.
The constitution was finalized on December 22, 1947, and came into effect on January 1, 1948. It established Italy as a democratic republic, with a president as head of state (elected by parliament), a prime minister as head of government, and a bicameral parliament (Chamber of Deputies and Senate). It included a wide range of social and economic principles, including the right to work, protections for health and social welfare, the right to education, and the right to strike. It also included—in its transitional and final provisions—a clause that barred male descendants of the House of Savoy from entering or residing in Italian territory.
The constitution was a product of the anti-fascist consensus. It rejected the authoritarianism of the fascist regime and the passivity of the monarchy. It enshrined the principles of popular sovereignty, separation of powers, and judicial independence. It was, in the words of one historian, “the most progressive constitution in post-war Europe.”
The Legacy of the Referendum
The 1946 referendum was a watershed in Italian history. It marked the definitive end of the House of Savoy and the beginning of the Italian Republic. It also established the principle that the form of the state—monarchy or republic—would be decided by popular vote, not by force or by dynastic succession. The referendum was a democratic moment in a country that had little experience with democracy.
But the referendum did not resolve all the tensions that had produced it. The regional divide between north and south, revealed starkly in the vote, persisted and deepened in the post-war decades. The north, which had voted overwhelmingly for the republic, became the engine of the Italian economic miracle, while the south remained poorer, more agricultural, and more dependent on state subsidies. The north-south divide became a central fault line in Italian politics, fueling resentment and regionalist movements, including the Northern League.
The monarchy’s legacy also persisted. Monarchist parties continued to exist, though they never won more than a small share of the vote. Former fascists, many of whom had been monarchists, were reintegrated into Italian society and politics. The amnesty of 1946, which pardoned most fascist crimes, also allowed monarchist officials to keep their positions. The monarchy remained a symbol for the right, and some Italians continued to hope for a restoration.
The Savoy family remained in exile for over 50 years. The transitional constitutional provisions specifically barred male descendants of the House of Savoy from entering Italy. Umberto II lived in Portugal until his death in 1983. His son, Vittorio Emanuele, was also barred. It was not until 2002 that the ban was lifted, and Vittorio Emanuele was allowed to return to Italy. The return was controversial, and Vittorio Emanuele remained a divisive figure, tainted by allegations of involvement in the death of a German tourist and by his refusal to renounce his claim to the throne.
The referendum also had implications for Italy’s international standing. The new republic was seen as a break with the fascist past, and it helped Italy rebuild its diplomatic relationships after the war. Italy became a founding member of NATO (1949) and of the European Coal and Steel Community (1951), the precursor to the European Union. The republic, unlike the monarchy, was able to project an image of democratic legitimacy.
The Referendum in Memory and Historiography
The 1946 referendum has been remembered in different ways by different political traditions. For the anti-fascist left, the referendum was a victory of the resistance and a repudiation of fascism. June 2 is celebrated as Republic Day (Festa della Repubblica), a national holiday marked by military parades, official ceremonies, and the laying of a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Rome.
For the right, particularly for neo-fascist and monarchist groups, the referendum is remembered as a stolen victory. Monarchist historians have long argued that the vote was fraudulent, that the republic won only because of irregularities in the counting, and that the monarchy was the legitimate government of Italy. These claims are not supported by mainstream historiography, which generally accepts the results as valid despite localized irregularities, but they persist in certain circles.
The referendum has also been studied by historians as a case study in democratic transitions. Italy’s transition from monarchy to republic was relatively peaceful, especially when compared to the civil wars and revolutions that accompanied similar transitions in other countries. The monarchy accepted defeat—grudgingly, but without armed resistance—and the republic was established through legal procedures. The transition was facilitated by the presence of the Allied occupation, which prevented a monarchist coup, and by the political skills of De Gasperi and other leaders.
The referendum also raised questions about the role of the monarchy in Italian history. Why had the monarchy survived so long? Why had it not been abolished earlier? Historians have pointed to the monarchy’s ability to adapt, to its symbolic role as a national unifier, and to the weakness of republican movements before the war. The referendum of 1946, they argue, was the product of specific historical circumstances—the war, the fall of fascism, the resistance, the Allied occupation—and not the inevitable outcome of a long-term trend.
Conclusion
The 1946 Italian referendum was a moment of democratic decision that transformed Italy’s political system. By a margin of 54% to 46%, Italians voted to abolish the monarchy and establish a republic. The vote was close, contested, and divisive, but it was accepted—after a brief crisis—by most Italians. The king went into exile, and the republic was born.
The referendum revealed the deep regional and social divisions within Italy: the industrial north voted decisively for a republic, the agricultural south remained more loyal to the monarchy. Those divisions would shape Italian politics for decades, fueling tensions between north and south, between left and right, between secular and religious. But the referendum also demonstrated that Italians could resolve their differences through democratic means, rather than through violence or civil war.
The Italian Republic that emerged from the referendum was not perfect. It inherited many of the problems of the old regime: corruption, clientelism, a weak state, and a divided society. But it also embodied the principles of anti-fascism, popular sovereignty, and democratic participation. The constitution that the Constituent Assembly wrote remains in force today, with only minor modifications. June 2, Republic Day, is still celebrated as the birth of modern Italy.
The monarchy, by contrast, has faded into memory. The last king, Umberto II, died in exile in 1983. His son, Vittorio Emanuele, returned to Italy in 2002, but the monarchy has no real political significance. The Savoy family’s palaces and estates have been turned into museums and tourist attractions. The monarchy is a relic of the past, a reminder of a different Italy—one that was defeated in war, disgraced by fascism, and abandoned by its king.
The referendum of 1946 was not just a vote on the monarchy; it was a vote on the future of Italy. It was a vote for democracy over dictatorship, for the republic over the crown, for the people over the king. And in that sense, it was the founding act of the Italian Republic.
Further Reading & Sources
· Di Scala, Spencer M. Italy: From Revolution to Republic, 1700 to the Present. Westview Press, 2004.
· Ginsborg, Paul. A History of Contemporary Italy: Society and Politics, 1943–1988. Penguin, 1990.
· Mack Smith, Denis. Italy and Its Monarchy. Yale University Press, 1989.
· Mammarella, Giuseppe. Italy Since 1945: A Political and Social History. Palgrave Macmillan, 1989.
· Morgan, Philip. The Fall of Mussolini: Italy, the Italians, and the Second World War. Oxford University Press, 2007.
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