1924 Italian general election
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General elections were held in Italy on 6 April 1924 to elect the members of the Chamber of Deputies.[1] They were held two years after the March on Rome, in which Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party rose to power, and under the controversial Acerbo Law, which stated that the party with the largest share of the votes would automatically receive two-thirds of the seats in Parliament as long as they received over 25% of the vote.[2]
Mussolini's National List (an alliance of Catholic, liberal, and conservative political parties) used intimidation tactics against voters,[2] resulting in a landslide victory and a subsequent two-thirds majority. This was the country's last multi-party election until the 1946 Italian general election.
Background[edit]
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On 22 October 1922 Benito Mussolini, the leader of the National Fascist Party, attempted a coup d'état (titled by the Fascist propaganda as the March on Rome) in which around 30,000 Italian fascists took part. The quadrumvirs leading the Fascist party, General Emilio De Bono, Italo Balbo (one of the most famous ras), Michele Bianchi, and Cesare Maria de Vecchi, organized the march while Mussolini stayed behind for most of the march; Mussolini allowed pictures to be taken of him marching along with the Fascist marchers. Generals Gustavo Fara and Sante Ceccherini assisted to the preparations of the March of 18 October. Other organizers of the march included the Marquis Dino Perrone Compagni and Ulisse Igliori.
On 24 October 1922, Mussolini declared before 60,000 people at the Fascist Congress in Naples: "Our program is simple: we want to rule Italy."[3] The Blackshirts occupied some strategic points of the country and began to move on the capital. On 26 October, former Prime Minister of Italy, Antonio Salandra, warned the incumbent Prime Minister Luigi Facta that Mussolini was demanding his resignation and that he was preparing to march on Rome. Facta did not believe Salandra and thought that Mussolini would govern quietly at his side. To meet the threat posed by the bands of Fascist troops now gathering outside Rome, Facta (who had resigned but continued to hold power) ordered a state of siege for Rome. Having had previous conversations with King Victor Emmanuel III about the repression of Fascist violence, he was sure the King would agree.[4] Instead, the King refused to sign the military order.[5] On 28 October, the King handed power to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class, and political right.[6]
While the march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, the King feared a civil war as he did not consider strong enough previous government, and Fascism was no longer seen as a threat to the establishment. Mussolini was asked to form his cabinet on 29 October while some 25,000 Blackshirts were parading in Rome. Mussolini legally reached power in accordance with the Statuto Albertino, the Italian constitution. The March on Rome was not the conquest of power which Fascism later celebrated but rather the precipitating force behind a transfer of power within the framework of the constitution. This transition was made possible by the surrender of public authorities in the face of Fascist intimidation. Many business and financial leaders believed it would be possible to manipulate Mussolini, whose early speeches and policies emphasized free market and laissez-faire economics.[7]
While Mussolini appointed an economic liberal minister to the economy, this changed as the Great Depression affected Italy along with the rest of the world starting in 1929, and Mussolini responded to it by increasing the role of the state in the economy to avoid a banking crisis.[8] Back in October 1922, even though the coup failed in giving power directly to the Fascist party, it nonetheless resulted in a parallel agreement between Mussolini and the King that made Mussolini the head of the Italian government. A few weeks after the election, Giacomo Matteotti, the leader of the Unitary Socialist Party, requested during his speech in front of the Parliament that the elections be annulled because of the irregularities.[9] On June 10, Matteotti was assassinated by the Blackshirts and his murder provoked a momentary crisis in the Mussolini government. The opposition parties responded weakly or were generally unresponsive. Many of the socialists, liberals, and moderates boycotted Parliament in the Aventine Secession, hoping to force the King to dismiss Mussolini.[citation needed]
On 31 December 1924 Blackshirt leaders met with Mussolini and gave him an ultimatum—crush the opposition or they would do so without him. Fearing a revolt by his own militants, he decided to drop all trappings of democracy.[10] On 3 January 1925, Mussolini made a truculent speech before the Chamber of Deputies in which he took responsibility for squadristi violence but did not mention the assassination of Matteotti.[11] This speech usually is taken as the beginning of the Fascist dictatorship because it was followed by several laws restricting or canceling common democratic liberties, all rubber-stamped by a Fascist-controlled Parliament.
Electoral system[edit]
This was the first and only multi-party general election held under the terms of the Acerbo Law. The Acerbo Law had been adopted by Parliament in November 1923 and stated that the party gaining the largest share of the votes—provided they had gained at least 25 percent of the votes—gained two-thirds of the seats in parliament. The remaining third was shared amongst the other parties through proportional representation.[12]
Parliamentary parties and leaders[edit]
| Party | Ideology | Leader | Status before election | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| National List (LN) | Fascism | Benito Mussolini | Government | |
| Italian People's Party (PPI) | Christian democracy | Alcide De Gasperi | Government | |
| Unitary Socialist Party (PSU) | Social democracy | Giacomo Matteotti | Opposition | |
| Italian Socialist Party (PSI) | Socialism | Tito Oro Nobili | Opposition | |
| Communist Party of Italy (PCdI) | Communism | Antonio Gramsci | Opposition | |
| Italian Liberal Party (PLI) | Liberalism | Luigi Facta | Government | |
| Democratic Liberal Party (PLD) | Social liberalism | Francesco Saverio Nitti | Government | |
| Italian Republican Party (PRI) | Republicanism | Eugenio Chiesa | Opposition | |
| Social Democracy (DS) | Social liberalism | Giovanni Antonio Colonna | Government | |
Results[edit]
 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
| National List | 4,305,936 | 60.09 | 355 | +250 | |
| Italian People's Party | 645,789 | 9.01 | 39 | −69 | |
| Unitary Socialist Party | 422,957 | 5.90 | 24 | New | |
| Italian Socialist Party | 360,694 | 5.03 | 22 | −101 | |
| National List bis | 347,552 | 4.85 | 19 | New | |
| Communist Party of Italy | 268,191 | 3.74 | 19 | +4 | |
| Italian Liberal Party | 233,521 | 3.26 | 15 | −28 | |
| Democratic Liberal Party | 157,932 | 2.20 | 14 | −54 | |
| Italian Republican Party | 133,714 | 1.87 | 7 | +1 | |
| Social Democracy | 111,035 | 1.55 | 10 | −19 | |
| Peasants' Party of Italy | 73,569 | 1.03 | 4 | New | |
| Lists of Slavs and Germans | 62,491 | 0.87 | 4 | −5 | |
| Sardinian Action Party | 24,059 | 0.34 | 2 | New | |
| National Fasces | 18,062 | 0.25 | 1 | New | |
| Total | 7,165,502 | 100.00 | 535 | 0 | |
| Valid votes | 7,165,502 | 94.10 | |||
| Invalid/blank votes | 448,949 | 5.90 | |||
| Total votes | 7,614,451 | 100.00 | |||
| Registered voters/turnout | 11,939,452 | 63.78 | |||
By region[edit]
| Region | First party | Second party | Third party | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Abruzzo-Molise | LN | PSU | PLD | |||
| Apulia | LN | PLI | PCdI | |||
| Basilicata | LN | PLD | DS | |||
| Calabria | LN | PLD | DS | |||
| Campania | LN | PLD | PSU | |||
| Emilia-Romagna | LN | PPI | PSU | |||
| Lazio | LN | PPI | PSI | |||
| Liguria | LN | PSU | PPI | |||
| Lombardy | LN | PPI | PSU | |||
| Marche | LN | PPI | PSU | |||
| Piedmont | LN | PLI | PSU | |||
| Sardinia | LN | PSdA | PPI | |||
| Sicily | LN | PSDI | PLD | |||
| Trentino | LN | PPI | SeT | |||
| Tuscany | LN | PSU | PPI | |||
| Umbria | LN | PPI | PSI | |||
| Veneto | LN | PPI | PSI | |||
| Venezia Giulia | LN | PPI | SeT | |||
References[edit]
- ^ Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7
- ^ a b Nohlen & Stöver, p1033
- ^ Carsten (1982), p.62
- ^ Chiapello (2012), p.123
- ^ Carsten (1982), p.64
- ^ Acemoğlu, Daron; De Feo, Giuseppe; De Luca, Giacomo; Russo, Gianluca (28 October 2020). "Revisiting the rise of Italian fascism". Center for Economic and Policy Research. Retrieved 5 August 2021.
- ^ Carsten (1982), p.76
- ^ T Gianni Toniolo, editor, The Oxford Handbook of the Italian Economy Since Unification, Oxford University Press (2013) p. 58.
- ^ Speech of 30 May 1924
- ^ Paxton, Robert (2004). The Anatomy of Fascism. New York City: Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 1-4000-4094-9. - Read online, registration required
- ^ Mussolini, Benito. "discorso sul delitto Matteotti". wikisource.it. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ^ Boffa, Federico (2004-02-01). "Italy and the Antitrust Law: an Efficient Delay?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
