The scant and aseptic note issued via the agency on 9 maggio 1946 it had been taken up exaggerated by the Italian press according to the political perspective of the various newspapers. Il Tempo di Roma had a full-page headline “Theabdication of Victor Emmanuel III” with the buttonhole “A historical cycle has closed”; the socialist newspaper L’Avanti was crude with “The fascist king has abdicated” and in the summary “He is succeeded, for 23 days, by the fascist prince”, already giving Umberto II as defeated in the institutional referendum; for L’Italia Libera “The fascist king abdicates and flees abroad”; the Christian Democratic newspaper Il Popolo reports “Vittorio Emanuele III abandons Italy but the commitment to the referendum does not change”.
The old king, after 46 years on the throne of the nation unified by his grandfather Vittorio Emanuele II, reluctantly stepped aside: almost half of his long reign had been in condominium with fascism and history had not forgiven him for this. It remained to be seen whether the Italians would have forgiven him, having emerged from a dictatorship, from a lost war with loss and destruction, and with the still open wound of the civil war.
The pressure to save the monarchy at the referendum and the resistance of Savoy
The abdication, if carried out in the right time and perhaps even skipping a step on the hierarchical ladder while also sacrificing Umberto in favor of his son with a regent, could perhaps have regained consensus for the monarchist cause. The English did not view this solution with disfavor and already during the war Winston Churchill, on 27 February 1944, with the “Coffee Pot Speech”, had hinted at the usefulness of not breaking that institutional continuity.
The Americans, with a solid republican tradition, were hostile to the Savoys, and had not failed to show it. Formally they were neutral on the institutional question, confining it to an internal matter entrusted to the will of the Italians to be expressed freely by vote. The revived parties that had given life to the National Liberation Committee and participated in civil governments after the escape from Pescara on 9 September 1943 had officially raised that question at the Bari congress of 28 and 29 January 1944 to which Churchill had replied, temporarily setting it aside with the Salerno Turning point promoted by the leader of the PdCI Palmiro Togliatti in agreement with Stalin.
The pressure on Vittorio Emanuele III to pass the buck had led to the compromise of the institution of the lieutenancy, on 5 June 1944, thanks to which the Prince of Piedmont exercised the statutory powers in the name of the king, while his father remained head of state. The old sovereign wanted to formally delegate his son to Rome as soon as it was liberated, but the Allies did not allow him to return and made him sign it in Ravello.
Umberto’s lieutenancy to postpone the transfer of power
For eleven months Umberto signed the lieutenant decrees that were submitted to him by the president of the council of ministers, without there being a parliament, including those that established the Constituent Assembly and the calling of the institutional referendum of 2-3 June 1946. And also the one that allowed the active and passive electorate to women, protagonists for the first time in the administrative elections of March-April, which affected approximately two thirds of the national territory in a patchy manner, not yet fully part of the Italian administration, although it will be filled in June for the referendum. The approaching deadline for the referendum made Vittorio Emanuele III’s stay on the throne unsustainable if the dynasty still wanted to have a margin of survival.
The insult to De Gasperi and his departure into exile as Duke of Pollenzo
Shortly before 1pm on Thursday 9 May, lieutenant Umberto showed up at Villa Maria Pia in Naples, where the king resided, accompanied by Duke Pietro d’Acquarone. It wasn’t a courtesy visit. The moment that could no longer be postponed had arrived and Admiral Ellery Stone, head of the Allied Control Commission, had been clear on this. In the meantime, a soldier had gone to the office of the notary Nicola Angrisano with orders to take him to the residence. At 3pm everything was ready for signing. Vittorio Emanuele III had been preparing the text since 6 May. He had signed the ready-made sheet with the same skimpy formula used by Carlo Alberto when he abdicated in favor of his son Vittorio Emanuele II, but he used plain paper and the notary made him copy it onto 12 lire stamped paper.
The sovereign rewrites exactly, including the “6” of the date which he corrects in pen to “9”, and signs. At 3.15pm everything ended, with the signature of the witnesses General Paolo Puntoni and Lieutenant Colonel Brunoro Buzzaccarini. That act should have been signed, as previously agreed, in front of the President of the Council of Ministers Alcide De Gasperi, who will not take it well and will have a brief and aseptic press note issued. The now ex-king takes off his uniform and puts on civilian clothes while they pack his bags.
That same day, at 7.40pm, he and his wife and a few companions boarded the cruiser Duca degli Abruzzi at anchor in Posillipo which would take him into exile in Alexandria, Egypt, where King Farouk said he was willing to host him, obviously after the British authorities allowed it. He had been king of Italy since 1900, with fascism also emperor of Ethiopia and king of Albania, now he is only the duke of Pollenzo. His son Umberto will reign for just a month. And from 13 June 1946, the date of his departure from Ciampino airport for Portugal after the referendum defeat but without recognizing the result and without abdicating, the Savoys will never reign over Italy again.