Constitution of ItalyThe Constitution of the Italian Republic (Costituzione della Repubblica Italiana) was enacted by the Constituent Assembly on 22 December 1947, with 453 votes in favour and 62 against. The text, which has since been amended sixteen times, was promulgated in an extraordinary edition of Gazzetta Ufficiale on 27 December 1947. The Constituent Assembly was elected by universal suffrage on 2 June 1946, on the same day as the referendum on the abolition of the monarchy was held, and it was formed by the representatives of all the anti-fascist forces that contributed to the defeat of Nazi and Fascist forces during the Italian Civil War.
History of the Italian RepublicThe history of the Italian Republic concerns the events relating to the history of Italy that have occurred since 1946, when Italy became a republic. The Italian republican history is generally divided into two phases, the First and Second Republic. After the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy and the end of World War II, Italian politics and society were dominated by Christian Democracy (DC), a broad-based Christian political party, from 1946 to 1994. From the late 1940s until 1991, the opposition was led by the Italian Communist Party (PCI).
Politics of ItalyThe politics of Italy are conducted through a parliamentary republic with a multi-party system. Italy has been a democratic republic since 2 June 1946, when the monarchy was abolished by popular referendum and a constituent assembly was elected to draft a constitution, which was promulgated on 1 January 1948. Executive power is exercised by the Council of Ministers, which is led by the Prime Minister, officially referred to as "President of the Council" (Presidente del Consiglio).
Giorgio NapolitanoGiorgio Napolitano (ˈdʒordʒo napoliˈtaːno; born 29 June 1925) is an Italian politician who served as president of Italy from 2006 to 2015, the first to be re-elected to the office. Due to his dominant position in Italian politics, some critics have sometimes referred to him as Re Giorgio ("King Giorgio"). In office from 2006 to 2015, he is the longest-serving and longest-lived president in the history of the modern Italian Republic, which has been in existence since 1946.
TreasonTreason is the crime of attacking a state authority to which one owes allegiance. This typically includes acts such as participating in a war against one's native country, attempting to overthrow its government, spying on its military, its diplomats, or its secret services for a hostile and foreign power, or attempting to kill its head of state. A person who commits treason is known in law as a traitor. Historically, in common law countries, treason also covered the murder of specific social superiors, such as the murder of a husband by his wife or that of a master by his servant.
Italian ParliamentThe Italian Parliament (Parlamento italiano) is the national parliament of the Italian Republic. It is the representative body of Italian citizens and is the successor to the Parliament of the Kingdom of Sardinia (1848–1861), the Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy (1861–1943), the transitional National Council (1945–1946) and the Constituent Assembly (1946–1948). It is a bicameral legislature with 600 elected members and a small number of unelected members (senatori a vita).
