ROME — Italy’s ex-royals are demanding $380 million in damages — and the return of confiscated property, including the presidential palace — for being sent into exile after World War II.
The Savoy dynasty, with a lineage dating to the 10th century, unified Italy in the 1800s and ruled the country as a kingdom until Italians voted in a 1946 referendum to become a republic.
Two years later, Italy’s new Constitution barred the last king, Umberto II, and his male descendants from Italy. They went into exile in Portugal and Switzerland.
The Savoys, led by the king’s son, Victor Emmanuel, returned in 2002 when the provision was overturned.
Carlo Malinconico, secretary general of Premier Romano Prodi’s office, rebuffed the request for reparations.
“Nothing should be paid,” he told the Corriere della Sera daily. “It’s the state that should ask the Savoys for reparations for their responsibilities in past historical events.”
