abstract
| - The State of Cisalpina [Italian: Lo Stato di Cisalpina], established on October 1st, 1862, is one of the constituent states of the Danubian Federation and the largest majority-Italian state. The growth of the Redshirt activity in the last years of the Kraus presidency produced much fear in the Federation, and especially in the Italian states, which would have been the main targets of a unified Italian state. In the states of Lombardia and San Marco the enemies of the Pan-Nationalists were obviously concerned and even the pro-Federation Pan-Nationalists considered Garibaldi the greatest threat to a prosperous Italy, it was in this situation that the Italian political leadership decided to react. The state of San Marco, that since its birth was influenced by Pan-Nationalist movements and politicians, promoted a more close cooperation between the extra-Federal Italian states and the Federation itself, the idea was to convince the Italians that the Federation was working to create the so-awaited Italian Union and that Garibaldi's ways were ineffective. The ex-President and ex-Prime Minister of San Marco, Giovanni Arpaio, led this diplomatic initiative as Ambassador to Sardinia-Piedmont under the Valenta presidency between 1860 and 1864, reaching important successes. In Lombardia instead the political leadership under President Silvestro Marconi tried to apply the same policy within the borders of the Federation, the Lombard solution to Pan-Nationalism was to unite the Italian peoples of the Federation under a single state; the talks of a merger between San Marco and Lombardy began in the first half of 1860 and led to the referenda of late 1860 that confirmed the union between the two states. The constitution of the new state was a compromise between the presidential system of Lombardy and the parliamentary system of San Marco, in its new form the Presidential office was now responsible before the parliament and could be dismissed in any moment through a vote. There was some discussion if this system should be considered a Semi-Presidential Republic or an all-out Presidential Republic, in the end was decided that the lack of a Prime Minister and the lack of effective votes of no confidence made the new state a Presidential Republic with diminished Presidential powers.
|