Why From 1922, Were Mussolini And The Fascists Able To Gain Control Over The Italian State? Essay, Research Paper

On 29th October 1922 Mussolini was made Prime Minister of Italy. However,

at this time, his party, the National Fascist Party occupied only 35 of 535

seats in the Italian Parliament ? a result of the May 1921 election, and his

first cabinet was a coalition containing only four fascists, the remainder being

Liberals and Catholics. Why then, in a relatively short space of time, was he

able to establish total power for himself, and become a fascist dictator?

Having been made Prime Minister Mussolini made it known to parliament that

he saw his main task as stabilising the economy. Whether or not this was the

whole truth is debatable; it did, however, win him the vote of confidence from

Parliament. However, he soon abused this support, saying in November that he

had 300,000 blackshirts that could abolish the constitution but that ?at least

for the present I do not wish to do so.? This intimidated parliament, and he

was able to get them to grant him emergency powers without having to disclose

why he needed them. This obviously gave him, in relation to the size of his

party, a disproportionate amount of power, and was the first step towards creating

a fascist dictatorship.

Aware of the low number of Fascists in Parliament, Mussolini first merged

his party with the Nationalist, giving him ten more seats. He also, by Spring

1923 had fired four cabinet ministers who were opposed to fascist brutality.

Furthermore, he was able to tighten his grip over the Italian State by again

intimidating politicians into passing the Acerbo Law ? during the debate armed

blackshirts roamed around the chamber. This dramatically decreased the democracy

of the state, ruling that the party who gains most votes at an election should

receive, by decree, two thirds of the seats in parliament, and the rest should

be distributed in accordance with proportional representation. However, the

fact that politicians were intimidated was not the only reason for the passing

of the law. As we have already discussed, Mussolini?s first cabinet comprised

of Fascists, Liberals and Catholics ? there were no socialists. At this time

Mussolini, although unpopular in Parliament was seen as less of a threat than

socialism ? possibly because of pre-1922 Fascist propaganda. Indeed some people

believed that arrests and beatings was the right way to treat the socialists.

Also, many politicians craved the end of weak coalition government in Italy.

After the introduction of the law, he called an election, in April 1924, and

winning 60% of the votes, went on to claim 374 of 535 seats. Whilst this was

gained due to election rigging, violence and intimidation, 2.5 million people

still voted against fascism, for theses reasons, in spite of the threat posed

by doing this. Mussolini?s response to this was that he believed ?50,000 guns

are better than the support of 5 million voters.? Even in consideration of this

dislike for Fascism though, the Fascist success at the 1924 election, exacerbated

by the Acerbo Law, proved to be a highly significant factor in the escalation

of Fascist power.

Dislike for fascism was not the only source of extra-parliamentary opposition

faced by Mussolini. Tension also came from Ras, leaders of Fascist squads who

wanted Mussolini to form a dictatorship, and fast. They were however, Fascists,

and so Mussolini, rather than showing brutality, appeased them by creating the

Grand Fascist Council. Mussolini was the head of this and it consisted of a

further twenty Fascist Ras. While this went on Fascist squads were disbanded

and converted into the MVSN ? the National Security Voluntary Militia and they

swore an allegiance not to the State or the King or even the Fascist Party,

but to Benito Mussolini. This meant that he had localised forces believing Fascist

ideals, and thus heightened his power of intimidation.

The single most significant factor in the establishment of Fascist dictatorship

came, surprisingly, as a direct spin-off from what came very close to being

the end of his government. Soon after the election a socialist, Matteotti, produced

in Parliament, evidence of violence and terror during the election campaign.

Days after, he was kidnapped, in broad daylight, and later stabbed to death.

This brutal murder did not only shock Mussolini?s political enemies, but turned

many undecided Liberals against him, believing him to have finally gone too

far. Due to this, opposition deputies, predominantly socialist and communist

dissidents walked out of parliament in protest saying they were ?true representatives

of the people.? Mussolini responded by banning them from Parliament and using

the militia to prevent their return. Sadly they did this in the belief that

the King would support them in setting up their own assembly, and dismiss Mussolini.

This was incredibly na?ve as the King was a great supporter of Mussolini ? it

had been him that made him Prime Minister. Furthermore the King knew that socialism

was against the idea of hereditary monarchy, and feared that making such a decision

would only strengthen the revolutionary Left, and, with Fascist willingness

to resort to violence, had the potential to lead to civil war. Because of this,

the Matteotti crisis, although leaving Mussolini somewhat weakened, it left

him facing a severely depleted opposition, and gave rise to yet more Fascist

dominance of the Italian State, particularly as many Liberals continued to support

Mussolini, seeing the crisis as an opportunity to exert their own beliefs on

a weakened Prime Minister. If the ?Aventine Succession? had never happened,

the Matteotti crisis may well have brought about the downfall of Mussolini.

In reality, it was this that led to the establishment of a dictatorship.

While Mussolini still enjoyed support from the Italian King, and significantly

less political opposition the controversy surrounding the death of Matteotti

refused to settle. As a result of this, in July 1924 Mussolini moved to introduce

press censorship and banned meetings of all other political parties ? trademarks

of the establishment of dictatorships. This created opposition from two key

areas. Firstly, Liberals who had previously supported him disliked having censorship

of the press, and, more importantly, in December 1924 leading Fascists, frustrated

by Mussolini?s lack of radicalism in creating a dictatorship presented him with

an ultimatum. Their support would be withdrawn unless he ended the Matteotti

affair and took decisive steps towards total power. Bowing to their demands

he told Parliament on January 3rd 1925, ?I assume full responsibility for what

has happened. . . Italians want peace and quiet, and to get on with its work.

I shall give it all these, if possible in love, but if necessary by force.?

Mussolini signalled here that he would now take the measures necessary to

give himself more complete personal power. With a clear majority in parliament,

and a King that supported him, Mussolini finally created dictatorial control.

What opposition there was in the chamber carried little weight, as it was deeply

divided, lacked in leadership and politically wounded by its earlier support

for Fascism.

Due to the fact that Mussolini faced no major opposition he was ble to fully

encapsulate control of the state. In December 1925 he banned opposition and

political parties and free trade unions. Furthermore in early 1926, Mussolini?s

self-proclaimed ?Napoleonic year? he was granted the right to issue decrees

carrying the full force of the law, giving him the power to step over parliament

altogether. He also took the right to select the Prime Minister away from the

King in 1928, giving him only a shortlist created by the Grand Fascist Council

from which he could select.

In conclusion, the primary long term cause for Mussolini?s ability to establish

dictatorship is that Fascism was always seen as less of an enemy than socialism,

particularly by key sectional groups ? the monarchy, and also the church. More

significant short term causes were the use of intimidation, seen at the 1924

election and the passing of the Acerbo Law. Also, Mussolini once said that ?all

you need to govern are policemen and bands playing in the streets.? Mussolini?s

organised leisure activities for both adults and children gained him support,

particularly from an indoctrinated younger generation.

The above, however, is only one side of the coin. Fascist strength became

ever stronger directly because of the weakness of the opposition. The Aventine

Succession could be said to have been the self-destruction of the Italian State.

As with his rise to power, the inability of the opposition to unite against

him proved to be their biggest downfall, with the largest opposition group,

the Liberals, dividing into Fascist and Socialist supporters. In spite of this

though, the death of Mattotti is perhaps an acceptable argument as to why the

opposition were right to fear him. This case goes a long way to prove that all

the strength of the opposition could never have been strong enough to overthrow

him, particularly without support from the monarchy. In fact, one could argue

that their failure to stand up to him made his period in office less brutal

and totalitarian than if they had challenged him.