1946, the PRI gained 4.4% of the popular vote in the election for a Constituent Assembly, confirming its traditional strongholds. However, it was very weak if compared to Christian Democracy (DC) and the Italian Communist Party (PCI). After that, a ballot on the same day abolished monarchy in Italy and the PRI declared itself available to take a role in the government of Italy, entering the second government of Alcide De Gasperi. In late 1946, Ugo La Malfa and Ferruccio Parri, formerly members of the Action Party (PdA), moved to the PRI. La Malfa would be appointed as minister in several of the following governments. At the 19th congress of the party held in 1947, there were two main inner trends: one, represented by the national secretary Randolfo Pacciardi, supported an alliance with the PCI; the other, led by Giovanni Conti and Cipriano Facchinetti, considered the PCI the cause of the government's lack of efficiency. The latter was to prevail. Carlo Sforza, a Republican, was Minister of Foreign Affairs in the De Gasperi III Cabinet, although only as an independent. Sforza signed the treaty of peace and contributed to the entrance of Italy into the Marshall Plan, NATO and the Council of Europe. The exclusion of left-wing parties from the government in 1947 led the PRI to join the De Gasperi IV Cabinet. Pacciardi refused to take a position as minister. As the PCI became ever closer to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Pacciardi later changed his mind and became Deputy Prime Minister. The 1948 Italian general election saw the PRI as a solid ally of the DC, but also a reduction of the party's share to 2.5%. In the following years, the strongest party faction was that of La Malfa, who refused to participate to the DC-led governments until 1962. In 1963, the party voted in favour of the first centre-left government in Italy led by Aldo Moro. Pacciardi, who had voted against, was expelled and founded a separate movement, Democratic Union for the New Republic (UDNR), whose electoral result were disappointing and whose members had largely returned to the PRI by the late 1960s (although Pacciardi, who received much criticism at this time for his association with coup plotters and neo-fascists, did not come back until after the UDNR was disbanded in 1980). La Malfa was elected national secretary in 1965. The alliance with the DC