Socialist Italy

What if the CIA had failed to prevent the election of the Italian Socialist Party, which had wide popular support (as happened in OTL with Chile)?
 

Germaniac

Donor
If the Popular Front wins in 48' then southern Italy breaks off. The Socialists and Communists had little support in the south, and lukewarm in the north. They would have held onto the North as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Italy, and in the South a western supported Republic of Italy. The South will industrialize and develop at a much faster pace with the pressure of the western powers. Upon the collapse of North Italy the two Nations will reunite.
 
If the Popular Front wins in 48' then southern Italy breaks off. The Socialists and Communists had little support in the south, and lukewarm in the north. They would have held onto the North as the Democratic Peoples Republic of Italy, and in the South a western supported Republic of Italy. The South will industrialize and develop at a much faster pace with the pressure of the western powers. Upon the collapse of North Italy the two Nations will reunite.

Do you think the south of Italy will stay a republic? That area voted to keep the King in large numbers. I wonder if they might not reform the Kingdom of Italy after the north breaks off.
 
Could an Italian Socialist victory lead to the election of a Socialist government in neighboring France and Switzerland?
 

Germaniac

Donor
The South may invite the prince back, as they were the monarchist stronghold.

Hell there may be a war over the middle of the country, specifically Rome. Who gets it an what not.

I don't know enough about French or swiss cold war politics so I dont want to ignorantly comment on that.
 
The South may invite the prince back, as they were the monarchist stronghold.

Hell there may be a war over the middle of the country, specifically Rome. Who gets it an what not.


That is what I was thinking. There was a lot of concern about election fraud in Socialist areas in the north during the Republic/Kingdom vote in 1946.

Too bad they couldn't just agree to Rome being an open city under control of the Pope.
 
Guys, you think that italians take politics much more seriously than they actually do.
(I should know, I am one of them)
Both socialist and communinst italians were actually lukewarm politicians, much more interesting in internal bickering and quiet living that in Doing The Revolution.
Even with a Popular front majority, Italy would be inside the Marshall plan and inside NATO, whle trying to run under-the-table compromise agreements with all the players in the area (exactly as per OTL).
Also consider that "majority" in the post war italian parliament is much more shaky that otherwhere, both because the legislature structure has been shaped to avoid a one-party-rules-it-all scenario (they had their fingers burnt on fascism) and because double backing and vote selling are considered part of the game. Unlike other countries, a politician is not burnt if he switches front amid legislature, and is likely to be re-elected in the next elections
 
What if the CIA had failed to prevent the election of the Italian Socialist Party, which had wide popular support (as happened in OTL with Chile)?

Are there more biased ways to frame the issue?

It wasn't the Socialists, it was the Popular Democratic Front, a Communist-Socialist alliance in which the former were dominant.

Both superpowers were secretly funding one of the 2 sides in the election, so if you want to depict the OTL result as a CIA victory then the alternative was a KGB victory.

The Christian Democrats also had wide popular support, and if the election had taken place without superpower involvement they would have won anyway.

Could an Italian Socialist victory lead to the election of a Socialist government in neighboring France and Switzerland?

No.

Even with a Popular front majority, Italy would be inside the Marshall plan and inside NATO, whle trying to run under-the-table compromise agreements with all the players in the area (exactly as per OTL).

This I doubt.
 
Do you think the south of Italy will stay a republic? That area voted to keep the King in large numbers. I wonder if they might not reform the Kingdom of Italy after the north breaks off.

I know there were plans to annex Sicily if the communists won but I never heard anything about the peninsula being divided.
 
What would happen to il Papa in this WI? OTL the Kremlin desperately wanted to destroy the Papacy. Yeah, technically the Pope has his 100 acres, but a communist Rome, even with a weak communism, is going to be at best a major pain in the ass for the Vatican.

WI the communist Italians denied the Popes access to the Lateran and the major basilicas?
 
The Pope would flee to Spain or Portugal rather than risk falling into the Communists' hands. Not that I expect he'd have to - Italy would face a civil war long before they'd have a chance to try that. A civil war which I expect them to lose.
 
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