Italy marks 80 years as a republic with military parade in Rome

Italy marked the 80th anniversary of the founding of the republic with a military parade through central Rome on Tuesday.

President Sergio Mattarella laid a wreath at the Altar of the Fatherland on Rome’s Piazza Venezia, as a flight of aircraft laid trails in the green, white and red of the national flag.

In a referendum held on June 2, 1946, the Italian people abolished the monarchy and opted for a republic. The poll was the first free election after the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini that began in 1922 and ended in 1945. It was also the first time that Italian women were allowed to vote.

Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and members of her Cabinet were in attendance as the parade passed down the Via dei Fori Imperiali, which was built by Mussolini and leads from the Colosseum past the Roman Forum to the Piazza Venezia.

They watched as military and police units, and armoured vehicles passed by in procession.