By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
The fascism developed in Italy, in the early 1920s, and ended up serving as a model for other European political regimes with a totalitarian bias, such as those of Germany, Spain and Portugal, as well as for the “Estado Novo”, implemented in Brazil. by Getúlio Vargas in 1937.
Historical context
Fascism emerged in the context of the end of World War I , when various problems, mainly of an economic nature, arose in the government of King Victor Emmanuel III. Despite being one of the countries that won the war, Italy, like the other countries involved in the world conflict, suffered severe damage to its economic structure, which generated social problems, especially with regard to workers in the industrial sector. Anarcho-syndicalism was very strong in this period in Italy, and the Italian Communist Party had organized itself in that country and had, in turn, strong links with the communism of the Russian Revolution of 1917.
Benito Mussolini
The Italian parliamentary monarchy was led by the liberal prime minister, Giolitti. The main party opposing Giolitti was the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), of which Benito Mussolini was a member until he supported Italy's entry into World War I. Such a gesture contradicted the decisions of the PSI, and Mussolini was expelled from the organization. In 1919, Benito Mussolini started to articulate a new organization of paramilitary character with ex-combatants of the First World War. This organization was initially called the Combat Fascio , which referred to the lictor bundle (littorio fascio ), symbol of the power of the ancient Roman Empire.
The clothes of Fascio it consisted of black shirts overlaid by a military uniform. In 1920, Mussolini transformed this organization into a political party, thus creating the National Fascist Party , who contested the elections the following year, holding 20 positions for deputies. In 1922, the fascists promoted the famous March on Rome , on October 26 and 27, 1922, whose objective was to force King Victor Emmanuel III to appoint Mussolini as Prime Minister. On the 30th, the king, yielding to pressure, tasked Mussolini with forming a new government for Italy.
In the 1924 elections, the fascists showed their totalitarian face. Mussolini had created a fascist volunteer militia for national security, which pressured people to vote for Fascist Party candidates. The assassination of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti generated a huge protest against the fascist regime, however, Mussolini perceived in this event a subterfuge to make his government even more undemocratic and militarily strong.
From 1925 onwards, the fascist regime managed to promote Italy's economic recovery, while also creating corporate unionism to control workers' organizations and business oligopolies that articulated with the state control of the economy. The Letter del Lavoro (Labour Charter) constituted one of the instruments of control of the Italian worker instituted by the fascists. The main body of the Mussolini regime was the National Fascist Council, which deliberated on all matters of political and economic interest and exercised the power to determine the occupation of positions in the various spheres of the state.
Mussolini assumed the title of Duce , that is, chief, which highlights the personality cult trait of these totalitarian regimes. The Fascist regime led Italy into World War II, alongside Nazi Germany. With the war lost, Mussolini was assassinated by the Italian population itself.
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