In parts, it was a vehicle for its financial backers who were established southern dignitaries and ex-fascists who had not been admitted to the Italian Liberal Party. The party rejected the partial and ineffective cleansing of the public service of former fascists, which they perceived as unfair, because important persons and institutions compromised with the old regime were spared. The success of the party reflected many Italians' refusal to think about the rise and resilience of fascism and to accept their responsibility. It could benefit from the southerners' long-established dislike of the central government and the twenty years of political diseducation by the Fascists. In the constitutional referendum of 1946 it advocated to maintain the monarchy, but the majority of voters opted for the establishment of a republic.