The Republic, Principal Parties

In the vote for the Constituent Assembly the Christian Democrats won a plurality of 207 seats and emerged as the dominant party in Italy. The Socialist Party won 115 seats, the Communists gained 104 seats, and four minor parties shared the remaining 117 seats. On June 28 Enrico de Nicola, a member of the Liberal Party, was elected provisional president of the republic. De Gasperi remained as prime minister.

In the deliberations preceding approval of the new republican government by the Constituent Assembly, irreconcilable disagreements between the Communists and Christian Democrats became evident. This friction was intensified by persistent semifamine and the generally chaotic Italian economy. As the prestige of the De Gasperi government declined, the Socialist and Communist parties drew together. Municipal elections in November 1946 indicated a decline in Christian Democratic support and gains for the Communist, Socialist, and rightist parties.