Republic Day is celebrated on June 2nd, one of the most heartfelt holidays in the country. It is the “birthday” of the Italian Republic, when Italian men and women were called to the polls to choose between monarchy or republic. Abruzzo overwhelmingly voted for the monarchy.
Republic Day is celebrated on June 2nd, one of the most heartfelt holidays in the country. It is the “birthday” of the Italian Republic, when Italian men and women were called to the polls to choose between monarchy or republic. Italy was the last of the European states occupied by the Nazis in World War II to keep free general elections. The newsreels of the time showed images of an orderly and disciplined people at the polls in a festive atmosphere, despite the stakes being very great and the post-war economic situation still very serious, not to say dramatic. The queue in front of the polling stations was very long, the journalist Anna Garofalo said. “We all have an emptiness in our chests from days of exams, we mentally review the lesson: that symbol, that sign, a cross next to that name. We hold the cards, like love notes. You see many folding stools stuck on the arm of women afraid of getting tired and many bulging pockets for the package. The conversations that arise between men and women have a different tone, on equal terms“. The parties were the great machine for mobilizing the vote for a people who were returning to democracy after twenty years of fascism and the devastation of war. There was no shortage of open clashes between the militants of the different parties and seizures of weapons; in the small towns, where the influence of the clergy and Catholic organizations was more deeply rooted, things went not much differently from Guareschi’s pictures of Don Camillo and Peppone. For his part, Vittorio Emanuele III, frowned upon as a collaborator of fascism and a door opener to the national abyss, in an extreme attempt to save the monarchy opted for the card of desperation and abdicated in favor of his son Umberto of Savoy. Thus another actor entered the referendum competition, Umberto II, who went down in history as the “King of May”, who in the last days of the electoral campaign carried out a long tour of Italy from North to South to raise the morale of the his supporters and revive the image of the Savoy, making his appearance even in cities as hostile on paper as Genoa, Milan and Venice.
Electoral participation was higher than expected, 89.1% of eligible voters voted and decidedly higher than the 63.1% of the last elections with universal male suffrage in 1924. The concerns of some commentators on the eve of public order proved excessive and everything took place in a climate of serenity, which characterized the day of 2 June and the morning of 3 June 1946. The problems, however, came later: the management of the data flows relating to the referendum was very troubled and left heavy consequences of appeals and controversies, with accusations from the monarchist side of fraud. In fact, the first data on the referendum that reached the Interior Ministry between 3 and 4 June – the southern sections – highlighted a clear advantage for the monarchy. Between 4 and 5 June, however, data began to flow in from many sections of the North, in which the republic largely prevailed. The atmosphere soon became incandescent, there was talk of a million pre-compiled ballots in favor of the republic and so, to put an end to the indiscretions in the late afternoon of 5 June 1946, the Minister of the Interior Romita convened a conference announcing the victory of the republic, despite the fact that data for 1217 sections were still missing. However, the Court of Cassation only ruled on 10 June, even though the data for 121 sections were still missing: after having read the results district by district, the victory was awarded to the republic. However, the formula used did not close the question of the certification of the republican victory, rekindling the hope of the monarchists that complaints about possible fraud and recounts could overturn the result. The following day there came to blows in Naples: during a large monarchist demonstration, the PCI headquarters was attacked, with nine demonstrators killed and around fifty injured. On the evening of 12 June, an anguished three-hour Council of Ministers conferred the functions of Head of State on the Prime Minister, on the basis of the results communicated on 10 June. “A revolutionary gesture“, Umberto II cut short the news, which he accused of a coup d’état and left Italian soil for Lisbon on the night between 12 and 13 June, without waiting for the definitive results. “The Italian people remained in this paradoxical climate for two years“, commented Pietro Calamandrei a few days before the vote, “Never in history has it happened, nor will it ever happen again, that a republic was proclaimed by the free choice of the people, while the King was still on the throne”. Only on 18 June 1946 did the Court of Cassation put an end to the protests making the victory of the republic official with 12,717,923 votes (54.26%) against the 10,719,284 (45.74%) of the monarchy. The winner of the referendum of 2 June 1946 was the republic, although the gap with the monarchy was less clear than initially forecast and the electoral machine, rusty after twenty years of inactivity, showed more than one flaw.
On the threshold of the vote, in April 1946, De Gasperi was already talking about a possible “geopolitical crack“, which in fact came true. The data of the individual constituencies gives us back an Italy substantially divided in two, between a republican North-Centre and a monarchist continental and insular South. South of Rome, for example, the Republic won only in Latina (54.9%) and Viterbo (55.1%) in Lazio, a Teramo (55.1%) e Pescara (56.5%) in Abruzzi-Molise and in Trapani (52.9%) in Sicily. 40% of the total republican votes were concentrated in the Centre-North in Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna and Tuscany, while 34.4% of the monarchist votes were collected in Campania, Puglia and Sicily.
Broadening the view on Abruzzo, we notice that the voters in the constituency L’Aquila-Pescara-Chieti-Teramo there were 648,932, i.e. 87.61% of those entitled and the monarchy won: 53.22% against 46.78% of the republic.
The most monarchist was undoubtedly the province of Chieti: 62.43% of the votes went to the monarchy and 37.57% to the republic. Within the province the most loyal is Fara San Martino with 92.42% of the votes for the monarchy; for the large centres, Chieti appears the most loyal to the King (78.20% monarchy – 21.80% republic), followed by Lanciano (66.82% monarchy) and Vast (56.83% monarchy). Going against the trend, Atessa, Guardiagrele and Ortona (64.86%, among the highest figures in the province) opted for the republic.
In L’Aquila and throughout the L’Aquila area the monarchy prevailed, but with smaller figures: 53.28% monarchy and 46.70% republic. The 30,369 voters in L’Aquila were 53.30% in favor of the monarchy and 46.70% in favor of the republic. Avezzano voted 63.87% for the monarchy and in Tagliacozzo and Pescasseroli the preference for the king reached 81%; instead Sulmona, Celano and Pratola (the latter with 73.82%) overwhelmingly decided in favor of the republic.
The republic won in the Teramo areaalthough not by much (52.10% republic – 47.90% monarchy), with Teramo practically split in two (50.02% republic – 49.98% monarchy), while Atri for 61.61% sided in favor of the monarchists and Giulianova with 75.15% in favor of the republicans.
In the province of Pescara the republic prevailed (56.52% republic – 43.48% monarchy) especially in the larger centres, such as in Pescara city (54.26% republic – 45.74% monarchy), in Popoli (79.64% republic) and in Penne (74, 55%). The highest preference figure for the republic is that of Civitella Casanova, with 83.85%. The monarchist bloc, however, offered some internal resistance: in Moscufo 61.93% supported the monarchy, in Brittoli 71.18% and in Carpineto della Nora 85.59%.
We could continue with the counts, but the territorial evaluation of the choice for the republic or the monarchy should be made on a case-by-case basis, also taking into account the contextual vote for the Constituent Assembly. What is certain is that some data cannot help but surprise: Gessopalena, cradle of the Maiella Brigade, sided in favor of the monarchy by 70.21%; the reprisals of Pizzoferratowhich led to the death of around seventy people, did not slow down the voters who chose the monarchy by an overwhelming 95.60%. Roccaraso – if we think of the Pietransieri massacre – he voted by majority for the monarchy (60.87%). Capistrello, despite the 33 victims of 4 June 1944, supported the king by 79.82%. When we go into detail, everything becomes more complex than any ideological and political scheme: the miracle of the birth of the republic and the re-foundation of the national state in fact occurred in conditions that were out of the ordinary, contradictory and in many ways paradoxical.
“History teaches us that democracy is always a delicate, fragile, perishable asset, a plant that takes root only in certain, previously fertilized soils.“, said Tina Anselmi. “Democracy is not just free elections – how free? -, it is not just economic progress – what progress and for whom? It’s justice. It is respect for human dignity, for women’s rights. It is tranquility for the elderly and hope for the children. It’s peace…“.
Celebrating June 2, the birthday of the Republic, is therefore not empty rhetoric, it means reflecting on the past and strengthening the foundations and motivations of our individual and collective actions.
