Coup Atlas Research Database
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32506221947ConspiracyDissident coup

Italy, 1947 — dissident coup conspiracy

Italy (ITA)Southern Europe, EuropeJune 22, 1947

Event Summary

The dataset records an event coded as a dissident coup conspiracy in Italy on 22 June 1947, during the acute political crisis of mid-1947 when the Christian Democratic prime minister Alcide De Gasperi, under pressure from the United States, expelled the Italian Communist Party and the Socialists from his cabinet on 31 May 1947. The exclusion, part of the wider May 1947 crises that also removed communists from the French government, threw Italian politics into turmoil in the tense months before the pivotal April 1948 election. Coup rumors circulated from both extremes: fears of a communist insurrection modeled on Greece, and speculation about a rightist or Gaullist solution.

No single discrete named plot on this specific date appears in accessible English sources, and both a communist coup de main and a rightist coup were judged impractical by contemporary observers. De Gasperi governed on without the left, won the 1948 election decisively with US backing, and anchored Italy in the Western alliance.

Researched Details

Researched

Independent research, added record by record. Hover any label for what it means.

Target identified in Coup Atlas research: Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi governed without the left after the May 1947 exclusion and won the 1948 election
RESEARCHED NAME
Key figures
Alcide De Gasperi (prime minister of Italy, target)
Italian Communist Party under Palmiro Togliatti (excluded from government)
Extreme right and left (sources of coup rumors)

Sources

On 31 May 1947 the president engineered the expulsion of all left-wing ministers from the De Gasperi cabinet, and the Socialists allied with the communists would not hold a national government position again for twenty years.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, May 1947 crises open source ↗
De Gasperi acted under pressure from US Secretary of State George Marshall, who had informed him that anti-communism was a precondition for receiving American aid.
SOURCE REVIEWED Wikipedia, May 1947 crises open source ↗
The Communists were excluded from the Italian government in June 1947, after which their rapid increase in strength appeared to be checked though they remained the strongest single force in Italian politics.
SOURCE REVIEWED U.S. State Department, FRUS 1947 vol. III open source ↗
The Christian Democrats accused the Communists of preparing an insurrection to overthrow a democratic government, and the specter of a Communist coup hung over Italian politics for years.
SOURCE REVIEWED Britannica, Italy: The Cold War political order open source ↗

Editorial Note

No discrete documentation of a single named coup plot precisely on 22 June 1947 in Italy was found in accessible English sources this session; the entry records the dataset's coding and the verified context of the May to June 1947 Communist-exclusion crisis and the coup rumors of that summer, with the specific plot unconfirmed and flagged as context only. First Italy record in the dataset run.

Cross-Reference

Only one dataset carries it. One of the three reference datasets we check against carries this event; the others do not list it. That is not a contradiction — the datasets cover different periods and use different thresholds — but it means the record has had less outside corroboration.

Identifiers for finding this same event in the other datasets:

Cline Center id
32506221947

How the match is made is described in crossref-report.md.

Outcome and Target

Coup Atlas research identifies the target as: Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi governed without the left after the May 1947 exclusion and won the 1948 election.

Baseline coding: Plot discovered and disrupted before execution. Recorded leader fate: remained in office; not physically harmed. The baseline file does not name individual targets; researched names are kept in a separate layer.

Baseline Dataset Citation
Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset, v2.2.2
Peyton, Buddy, Joseph Bajjalieh, Michael Martin, and Andrea Gerald. 2026. Cline Center Coup d’État Project Dataset. Cline Center for Advanced Social Research. V.2.2.2. February 17. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. doi: 10.13012/B2IDB-9651987_V10
Open dataset DOI ↗
⚑ This citation establishes the coded baseline record; use the claim-level sources above for the researched narrative.

Baseline Source-Document Entries

CSP

Named in the baseline source document; no article citation was recorded.

Times of India

“Fascist Movement Again In Italy: LEADERS ARRESTED,” June 25, 1947

Chicago Tribune

“ITALY UNCOVERS FASCIST TERROR PLOT; 24 HELD,” June 23, 1947

This is the citation trail carried by the baseline dataset, grouped by outlet and rejoined from the line-wrapped original. Coup Atlas has not independently re-checked every document; read the original before citing a specific claim. URLs the import damaged beyond safe repair are shown as plain text and listed in citations-report.md. How this list is built →

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