Italy’s Choice: The Birth of a Republic cover art

Italy’s Choice: The Birth of a Republic

Italy’s Choice: The Birth of a Republic

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

 Discover how Italy voted to fire its monarchy in 1946. Explore the collapse of the House of Savoy and the birth of the modern Italian Republic.ALEX: Imagine waking up one morning as a loyal subject of a king and going to bed that night as a citizen of a republic. On June 2, 1946, twelve million Italians did exactly that when they essentially voted to fire their royal family.JORDAN: Wait, they actually voted the monarchy out? I always assumed kingdoms ended with revolutions or guillotines, not a ballot box survey.ALEX: Exactly. It was one of the few times in history a nation chose to dismantle an ancient monarchy through a peaceful referendum. Today, we’re diving into the 1946 Italian institutional referendum, the moment the House of Savoy lost its crown.JORDAN: So, let’s peel back the curtain. Why was the monarchy on the chopping block in the first place? Were they just unpopular, or did they actually do something to deserve a pink slip?ALEX: It wasn’t just one thing, but the shadow of Benito Mussolini loomed over everything. The House of Savoy had ruled since Italy unified in 1861, but their prestige took a massive hit when King Victor Emmanuel III allowed Mussolini to seize power in 1922.JORDAN: Ah, the classic mistake of inviting the wolf into the house. So the King basically stood by while the Fascist regime took over?ALEX: He did more than stand by; he signed the laws that dismantled Italian democracy. By the time World War II ended and Italy was picking up the pieces from a brutal civil war and Nazi occupation, the people weren't in a forgiving mood. The King had tied the fate of the monarchy to a regime that led the country into a catastrophic war.JORDAN: So it was guilt by association. But if the King was the problem, couldn't they just swap him out for a better relative? Didn't they try to pull a PR move to save the brand?ALEX: They tried exactly that. In May 1946, just weeks before the vote, Victor Emmanuel III abdicated the throne, hoping his son, Umberto II, would be more palatable to the public. Umberto was younger and less tainted by the Mussolini years, but for many Italians, it was too little, too late.JORDAN: Talk about a high-stakes rebranding. So, the stage is set: a broken country, a brand-new King, and a piece of paper that decides the future of the nation. How did the actual vote go down?ALEX: It was the first time Italy used universal suffrage, meaning women voted in a national election for the very first time. It wasn't just a referendum on the King; it was a total reboot of Italian society. People flocked to the polls on June 2nd, even though certain parts of the country—like Bolzano and areas near the border—couldn't vote because they were still under Allied occupation.JORDAN: That sounds incredibly tense. Was it a landslide victory for the Republic, or was Italy split down the middle?ALEX: It was surprisingly close. The north and center of Italy were overwhelmingly pro-republic, but the south remained largely loyal to the monarchy. When the Supreme Court of Cassation finally tallied the votes, the Republic won with about 12.7 million votes against 10.7 million for the King.JORDAN: Two million votes isn't exactly a rounding error, but it's not a blowout either. Did the King just pack his bags and leave, or did he try to demand a recount?ALEX: It got messy for a second. The monarchist party filed appeals, claiming there were irregularities. But Umberto II realized the tide had turned and the risk of a new civil war was too high. On June 13th, without even waiting for the final court ruling on the appeals, he boarded a plane for Portugal.JORDAN: He just left? No farewell tour, no final speech from the balcony?ALEX: He left quietly, ending nearly a thousand years of his family’s rule. He became known as the 'May King' because he only technically reigned for 34 days. By the time the appeals were officially rejected on June 18th, Italy was already moving on.JORDAN: So, the King is in Portugal, the Republic is born, and Italy finally gets a fresh start. What changed the next day? Did they just slap a new logo on the letterhead and call it a day?ALEX: It was much deeper. A year later, they implemented a new Constitution, and on January 1, 1948, Enrico De Nicola became the first official President of the Italian Republic. This was the first time most of the Italian Peninsula was under a single republican government since the fall of the Roman Republic nearly two thousand years earlier.JORDAN: That is a staggering gap in the resume. So this wasn't just a political change; it was a historical reset button.ALEX: Absolutely. It’s why Italy celebrates June 2nd as 'Festa della Repubblica' every year. It’s their equivalent of the Fourth of July. It represents the moment the people decided they didn't need a royal bloodline to tell them how to live.JORDAN: It’s fascinating that a country with such deep ties to tradition and nobility could just... decide to stop. It feels ...
No reviews yet