Anniversary Of The Arengo – March 25, 2025

History of Anniversary Of The Arengo

San Marino is the world’s smallest republic and the oldest remaining sovereign state in Europe. It was founded at the beginning of the fourth century and pursued a different approach to governing than the nations and city-states around it. San Marino was administered by an assembly of the leaders of the great families in the State from the fifth century until the middle of the 13th century, rather than by a monarchy. The Arengo was the name of this group of founding great families. The Arengo didn’t have a leader or a set meeting site.

By 1243, the citizens of San Marino had had enough of the family feuds, and the Pope had established a newly elected assembly, the Grand and General Council, as San Marino’s ultimate authority, unofficially ending the Arengo. Instead of being elected regularly, members of the council were appointed for life, thereby creating an oligarchy in which power was entrusted to a few persons without accountability.

The Grand and General Council has been increasingly a government of few people since the 17th century, with political power concentrated in the hands of wealthy landowners. In 1906, the Sammarinese Socialist Party held an arengo to advocate for whether the co-option system of councilors for life should be kept or if the size of councils should match the population of the communities they were to represent.

In 1922, the Sammarinese Fascist Party was established to fight against the Socialist reforms. They continued to reign until the end of WWII when a Socialist-Communist coalition government was established.