Constituent Assembly of Italy of the deputies of the new Constituent Assembly; the latter would have the task to write a new constitutional chart, as established by a decree of 16 March 1946. The referendum was won by a move to a Republic with some 12.7 million votes, against 10.7 millions favoring to continue being a monarchy. Umberto II, the last king of the country, left Italy on 13 June 1946. On 18 June 1946 the Corte di Cassazione proclaimed officially the victory of the Republic. The election of the Constituent Assembly was based on a proportional system, based on 32 electoral regions. 573
Mervyn King, Baron King of Lothbury in their final report. According to George Osborne, Gus O'Donnell made an offer to have King brief the Tories and Lib Dems during the Coalition's formative talks; however, the parties suspected they "knew what he was going to say and . . . also thought it was more appropriate for our Treasury spokesmen to talk to him". King was criticised again in May 2012 on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, on the day before an election, after he expressed approval of Coalition austerity measures. In a speech to the European Parliament in Brussels in May 2011, King commented that the