1948 Italian general election

1948 Italian general election

← 1946 18 April 1948 1953 →
outgoing members elected members
Chamber of Deputies
All 574 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 288 seats needed for a majority
Turnout	92.23%
Party Leader % Seats +/– DC Alcide De Gasperi 48.51 305 +98 FDP Palmiro Togliatti & Pietro Nenni 30.98 183 −36 US Giuseppe Saragat 7.07 33 New BN Roberto Lucifero d'Aprigliano 3.82 19 −52 PNM Alfredo Covelli 2.78 14 −2 PRI Randolfo Pacciardi 2.48 9 −14 MSI Giorgio Almirante 2.01 6 New SVP Erich Amonn [de] 0.47 3 New Peasants Alessandro Scotti [it] 0.37 1 0 PSd'Az Giovanni Battista Melis [it] 0.24 1 −1 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Senate of the Republic
All 237 seats in the Senate of the Republic 172[a] seats needed for a majority
Turnout	92.15%
Party Leader % Seats DC Alcide De Gasperi 48.11 131 FDP Palmiro Togliatti & Pietro Nenni 30.76 72 US Giuseppe Saragat 4.16 10 BN Roberto Lucifero d'Aprigliano 5.40 7 PRI Randolfo Pacciardi 2.62 6 PNM Alfredo Covelli 1.74 3 MSI Giorgio Almirante 0.72 1 ADN Epicarmo Corbino 0.68 1 SVP Erich Amonn [de] 0.42 2 PSd'Az Giovanni Battista Melis [it] 0.29 1 Independents – 2.40 4 This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below. Results of the election in the Chamber and Senate. Seat distribution for the Chamber of Deputies (left) and Senate (right). Prime Minister before Prime Minister after the election Alcide De Gasperi DC 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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