Italian Constituent Assembly

The Italian Constituent Assembly (Italian: Assemblea Costituente della Repubblica Italiana) was a parliamentary chamber which existed in Italy from 25 June 1946 until 31 January 1948. It had the task to write a constitution for the Italian Republic, which had replaced the Kingdom of Italy after the Italian civil war.

On June 2, 1946 an election, the first since 1924, was held in Italy. Vote was allowed to all males and (for the first time) females older than 21. Voters received both a ballot for the choose between Republic or Monarchy, and one for the election of the deputies of the new Constituent Assembly; the latter would have the task to write a new constitutional chart, as established by a decree of 16 March 1946.

The referendum was won by a move to a Republic with some 12.7 million votes, against 10.7 millions favoring to continue being a monarchy. Umberto II, the last king of the country, left Italy on 13 June 1946. On 18 June 1946 the Corte di Cassazione proclaimed officially the victory of the Republic.

The election of the Constituent Assembly was based on a proportional system, based on 32 electoral regions. 573 deputies were to be elected, although the elections could not be held in South Tyrol, Trieste, Gorizia, Pola, Fiume and Zara, which were then under Allied or Yugoslav military control. Thus, 556 deputies resulted elected.

On 25 June 1946 the assembly was established, with Giuseppe Saragat (future president of the Republic) as president. Its first act, on 28 June, was the election of Enrico De Nicola as the Italian Republic's provisional president. On 504 voters, De Nicola (a member of the Italian Liberal Party) obtained 396 votes, followed by Cipriano Facchinetti (Italian Republican Party) with 40, Ottavia Penna Buscemi (Common Man's Front) with 32, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando (left) with 12, Carlo Sforza (PRI) with 2, Alcide De Gasperi and Alfredo Proja (both from Christian Democracy, or DC) with 2. Aside from the creation of the new constitution, the assembly was entrusted the approval of governments and of their budgets, and the ratification of the international treaties. The legislative function was formally assigned to the government, but, in virtue of the pre-Fascist tradition, the latter often assigned the emission of laws to the assembly.

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