Petar DRAGIŠIĆ

Institute for Recent History of Serbia, Belgrade

petardragisic@gmail.com

Yugoslavia and General Election in Italy in 1948

Abstract:

The paper deals with Yugoslav perceptions of the 1948 general election in Italy. The research focuses primarily on reports of the Yugoslav legation in Rome, which closely monitored the election campaign as well as the consequences of this watershed in the Cold War phase of Italian history. The Yugoslav sources cast a light on the strategies of the principal protagonists in the Italian political turmoil in April 1948.

Key words: election, 1948, Italy, Yugoslavia, Togliatti

Summary

The general election in Italy in April 1948 was a watershed moment in the history of Italy after the Second World War. The convincing victory of the right-wing and centrist forces in Italy over the left-wing coalition consisting of socialists (Italian Socialist Party/Partito Socialista Italiano) and communists (Italian Communist Party/Partito Communista Italiano) consolidated the anti-communist and thereby pro-Western block in the Appennine Peninsula. The containment of the Communist Party thus became one of the most distinctive features of the Italian political system during the Cold War era. The Yugoslav diplomats in Rome were closely observing the election in Italy, focusing on the strategies of domestic (Communists, Socialists, Christian Democrats, the Vatican) as well as foreign protagonists in the Italian politics. The Yugoslav clear anti-Western orientation (prior to the Resolution of the Cominform and the Tito-Stalin split) profoundly shaped the attitude of the Yugoslav regime towards the 1948 Italian election. The reports of the Yugoslav legation in Rome expressed genuine sympathy for the Italian comrades, despite Yugoslav criticism of certain facets of the Communist strategy in the spring of 1948. On the other hand, the Yugoslavs vehemently condemned the anti-Communist policy of the Italian establishment and its domestic and international tutors. The dramatic tone in the Yugoslav documents reveals how much the Yugoslav diplomats were cognizant of the importance of the political earthquake in Italy in April 1948.