In the sonic universe there's 2 countries based on Italy: The kingdom of Soleanna in Sonic 06 and Spagonia in Sonic Unleashed. Soleanna is ruled by a royal family. The description of the Spagonian flag souvenir in Unleashed says that it has an emblem that "belonged to the royal family that once ruled the region". Conclusion: in between 06 and Unleashed the Soleannan monarchy was overthrown in a violent revolution to establish the democratic nation of Spagonia.
Imagine having a revolution and overthrowing the monarchy but when you guillotine the fucker it unleashes an unkillable fire demon from her neck stump that ushers in the apocalypse. The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation cunts would never shut up about it.
Incidentally while checking the Spagonian flag after reading Jen’s post I stumbled across someone’s Deviantart post where they were doing some kind of worldbuilding project of making very war gamey Mobian factions, one of which appears to be a Spagonian fascist movement with fasces flag.