It is with the greatest honour and the greatest pleasure that Tuttoitalia is this year among the official supporters of the Festa della Repubblica Italiana. On 2 June the birth of the Italian Republic is celebrated, and Tuttoitalia is glad to contribute to the celebrations scheduled at the Italian Embassy in Bern together with our Ambassador Silvio Mignano.
The event extends to all the Italian Consulates in Switzerland and around the world:
Consulate of Italy in Basel
Consulate General of Italy in Geneva
Consulate General of Italy in Lugano
Consulate General of Italy in Zurich
On 2 June the Festa della Repubblica is celebrated in memory of the referendum that, on that very day in 1946, decreed Italy's transition from a monarchical political system to a republican one. On those two days (voting was also held on 3 June) women too voted for the first time: it was the first time in Italian history that elections were held by universal suffrage. The results of the referendum were made known on 18 June 1946 and on that day the Court of Cassation officially proclaimed the birth of the Italian Republic: 12,718,641 Italians had voted in favour of the republic, while 10,718,502 had voted in favour of the monarchy (invalid or blank ballots amounted to 1,498,136). The referendum thus brought an end to the Kingdom of Italy which, since 1861, the year of unification, had been led for 85 years by the royal House of Savoy, and gave rise to the Italian Republic. In this way Italy moved from a constitutional monarchy to a parliamentary republic.
UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE
2 and 3 June were the first elections after 22 years of the fascist regime (the last had been in 1924). Voters, all Italian citizens of both sexes and of age, that is, at the time, over 21 years old, were given two ballots. The first for the institutional referendum and the second for the election of the deputies of the Constituent Assembly, the body that would be tasked with drafting the new constitutional charter according to the direction that emerged from the referendum. Subsequently, on 1 July Enrico De Nicola was appointed the first president of the Italian Republic, Alcide De Gasperi was the first prime minister and on 1 January 1948 the new Constitution of the Italian Republic came into force.
THE FESTA DELLA REPUBBLICA
It was decided from the very start to celebrate the Festa della Repubblica on the anniversary of the referendum (and not of the proclamation), but from 1977 to 1999, because of the economic crisis of the late 1970s, it was moved to the first Sunday in June, so as not to lose any working day.
As is customary, the official ceremony of the Festa della Repubblica provides for the President of the Republic to lay a laurel wreath in tribute to the Unknown Soldier, at the Altare della Patria. Along the Fori Imperiali, again in Rome, the parade of the armed forces then takes place.
2 June is one of the days on which it is easiest to hear the national anthem known as the Inno di Mameli, but which is actually called Canto degli italiani.
