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    "localId": "486499771",
    "label": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Italy, Situation Report 15",
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    "title": "Report, Central Intelligence Agency, Italy, Situation Report 15",
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        "President's Secretary's Files (Truman Administration)",
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    "productionDates": [
        {
            "logicalDate": "1948-01-01",
            "month": 1,
            "year": 1948
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{
    "seq": 13,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/presidential-libraries/truman/hst-psf/602196/875504/875504-02-013.tif",
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    "ocrText": "SECRET\nto remove the Fascist stigma from the Savoy dynasty, Victor Emmanuel abdicated in\nMay 1946, and quit the country, leaving his son, Humbert II, to assume the throne. In\nspite of intensified monarchist activity, however, the monarchy was voted out in June\n1946 by the slim margin of two million votes out of 23 million.\nThe newly elected Constituent Assembly, setting to work to draft the constitu-\ntion, chose as first President of the Republic Enrico de Nicola who then asked Alcide de\nGasperi to form a new cabinet pending completion of the constitution. This govern-\nment, composed principally of representatives of the three \"mass\" parties (Commu-\nnists, Socialists, and Christian Democrats) and divided over such issues as domestic\neconomic policy and reaction to the peace treaty, was able to hold together until a crisis\nwas precipitated by the Socialist Party split in January 1947. Premier De Gasperi, his\nposition stronger because of promises of economic aid resulting from his visit to the\nUS, attempted to form a Cabinet without the Communists, who had been undermining\nhis economic policies. He was forced to include them, however, in the new Cabinet\nformed in February. Subsequently the deteriorating economic situation caused him\nto urge a broader-based cabinet which would include economic advisers. This consid-\neration and left-wing Socialist charges of irresponsibility were principally responsible\nfor the resignation of Premier De Gasperi 13 May.\nAfter the failure of the two \"elder statesmen,\" Francesco Saverio Nitti and\nVittorio Emanuele Orlando, to form a new \"broad\" government, De Gasperi accom-\nplished what he had failed to bring about in February. On 3 June he announced his\nnew Cabinet composed entirely of Christian Democrats and Independent technicians.\nFor the first time since the liberation of Italy the Communist and Socialists were com-\npletely excluded from the Cabinet. But lack of working class representation in his\nGovernment and the need for a more secure parliamentary majority induced De Gasperi\nto include in his Cabinet on 15 December 1947 representatives of the moderate Left\n(the Saragat Socialists and the Republicans).\nb. Structure of Government.\nItaly's new constitution, completed at the end of 1947 by the Constituent\nAssembly, provides for a republican form of government founded on \"work\nand\nthe effective participation of all workers in the political, economic, and social organiza-\ntions of the nation.\" The new republic is to have a President, term of office seven\nyears, elected by Parliament and the representatives of the Regional Councils. The\nPresident will appoint the Prime Minister, who in turn will choose his own Cabinet,\nboth to be dismissed on a vote of lack of confidence by Parliament. The legislative\nbranch (Parliament) will consist of two houses: a Senate, a Chamber of Deputies, both\nselected by direct universal suffrage. The Senate is elected on a regional basis. Each\nof the 19 Regions is entitled to one Senator per 200,000 inhabitants. The Senator is\nelected for 6 years. In addition there are a few life-term Senators. The Chamber of\nDeputies is entitled to one Deputy per 80,000 inhabitants. Each Deputy is elected for\na term of five years. The Judicial Branch is intended to be politically \"independent\",\nmagistrates to be recommended by a Superior Judicial Council for appointment by the\nPresident.\nI-5\nSECRET"
}