1948 Italian general election

1948 Italian general election

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All 574 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 288 seats needed for a majority 237 seats in the Senate 172 seats needed for a majority[a]
Registered	29,117,554 (C) · 25,874,809 (S)
Turnout	26,855,741 (C) · 92.2% 23,842,919 (S) · 92.2%
Majority party Minority party Third party   Leader Alcide De Gasperi Palmiro Togliatti[b] Giuseppe Saragat Party DC FDP US Leader since 29 December 1944 28 December 1947[c] 11 January 1947 Leader's seat Trento (C) Rome (C) Turin (C) Seats won 305 (C) / 131 (S) 183 (C) / 72 (S) 33 (C) / 10 (S) Popular vote 12,740,042 (C) 10,899,640 (S) 8,136,637 (C) 6,969,122 (S) 1,858,116 (C) 943,219 (S) Percentage 48.5% (C) 48.1% (S) 31.0% (C) 30.8% (S) 7.1% (C) 4.6% (S)   Fourth party Fifth party Sixth party   Leader Roberto Lucifero Alfredo Covelli Randolfo Pacciardi Party BN PNM PRI Leader since 3 December 1947 11 June 1946 20 January 1947[d] Leader's seat Calabria (S) Benevento (C) Pisa (C) Seats won 19 (C) / 7 (S) 14 (C) / 3 (S) 9 (C) / 4 (S) Popular vote 1,003,727 (C) 1,222,419 (S) 729,078 (C) 393,510 (S) 651,875 (C) 594,178 (S) Percentage 3.8% (C) 5.4% (S) 2.8% (C) 1.7% (S) 2.5% (C) 2.6% (S)
Results of the election in the Chamber and Senate. Seat distribution for the Chamber of Deputies (left) and Senate (right).
Prime Minister before election Alcide De Gasperi DC Prime Minister after the election Alcide De Gasperi DC

General elections were held in Italy on 18 April 1948 to elect the first Parliament of the Italian Republic.^[1]

After the Soviet-backed coup in Czechoslovakia in February 1948, the U.S. became alarmed about Soviet intentions in Central Europe and feared that Italy would be drawn into the Soviet sphere of influence if the leftist Popular Democratic Front (Italian abbr.: FDP), which consisted of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) and the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), were to win the 1948 general election. As the last month of the election campaign began, Time magazine published an article which argued that an FDP victory would push Italy to "the brink of catastrophe".^[2]

The U.S. consequently intervened in the election by heavily funding the centrist coalition led by Christian Democracy (DC) and launching an anti-communist propaganda campaign in Italy. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) claims that the Soviet Union responded by sending exorbitant funds to the FDP coalition. However, the PCI disputed this claim and, in contrast, expressed its discontent with what it perceived as a lack of support from the Soviets.^{[citation needed]}

The DC coalition won the election by a comfortable margin and defeated the FDP coalition.^[3] The DC coalition went on to form a government without the leftists, who had been expelled from the government coalition in the May 1947 crises and remained frozen out.

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