1924 Italian general election

none Elezioni politiche italiane del 1924 gov October 2019 Kingdom_of_Italy legislative 1921 Italian general election 1921 1929 Italian general election 1929 All 535 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 268 6 April 1924 130x130px Benito Mussolini crop.jpg Benito Mussolini National List (Italy) 374 New 4,653,488 64.94% New De Gasperi anni 20.jpg Alcide De Gasperi Italian People's Party (1919) 39 69 645,789 9.01% 11.38 pp Giacomo Matteotti crop.jpg Giacomo Matteotti Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922) 24 New 422,957 5.90% New Tito_oro_nobili.jpg Tito Oro Nobili Italian Socialist Party 22 101 360,694 5.03% 19.66 pp Antonio Gramsci.jpg Antonio Gramsci PCdI 19 4 645,789 3.74% 0.87 pp File:Giovanni_Giolitti_1920_(cropped).png Giovanni Giolitti Italian Liberal Party 15 86 422,957 3.26% 3.86 pp Prime Minister Elected Prime Minister Benito Mussolini Benito Mussolini National Fascist Party National Fascist Party General elections were held in Italy on 6 April 1924 to elect the members of the Chamber of Deputies.Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) Elections in Europe: A data handbook, p1047 978-3-8329-5609-7 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.Nohlen & Stöver, p.1033 Mussolini's National List (an alliance of fascists and a few liberal political parties) used intimidation tactics against voters, 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 thumb|200px|Benito Mussolini and the fascist Blackshirts during the March on Rome in October 1922 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."Carsten (1982), p.62 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.July 2026July 2026 Having had previous conversations with King Victor Emmanuel III about the repression of Fascist violence, he was sure the King would agree.Chiapello (2012), p.123 Instead, the King refused to sign the military order.Carsten (1982), p.64 On 28 October, the King handed power to Mussolini, who was supported by the military, the business class, and political right.Acemoğlu Daron Daron Acemoglu De Feo Giuseppe De Luca Giacomo Russo Gianluca 28 October 2020 Revisiting the rise of Italian fascism https://voxeu.org/article/revisiting-rise-italian-fascism 5 August 2021 Center for Economic and Policy Research While the march itself was composed of fewer than 30,000 men, the King feared a civil war as he did not consider the Facta's government strong enough, 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. 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.Carsten (1982), p.76 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. Electoral system 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. Boffa, Federico Italy and the Antitrust Law: an Efficient Delay? 2004-02-01 http://129.3.20.41/eps/eh/papers/0402/0402001.pdf 2008-10-05 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090305031636/http://129.3.20.41/eps/eh/papers/0402/0402001.pdf 2009-03-05 Voting rights Only men were eligible to vote in this election. NCOs and soldiers of military bodies (such as the Italian Army and Navy) were temporarily stripped of their right to vote.August 2025 Main parties and leaders PartyIdeologyLeaderSeats in 1921Italian Socialist Party (PSI)SocialismTito Oro Nobili123Italian People's Party (PPI)Christian democracyAlcide De Gasperi108Italian Liberal Party (PLI)LiberalismGiovanni Giolitti101National List (LN)FascismBenito Mussolini49Social Democracy (DS)Social liberalismGiovanni Antonio Colonna29Communist Party of Italy (PCdI)CommunismAntonio Gramsci15Italian Republican Party (PRI)RepublicanismEugenio Chiesa6Constitutional Opposition (OC)LiberalismGiovanni AmendolaDid not existUnitary Socialist Party (PSU)Social democracyGiacomo MatteottiDid not exist Results thumb|Ballot paper used in the election File:Italian Parliament, 1924.svg National List 4305936 355 +250 black Italian People's Party 645789 39 −69 Unitary Socialist Party 422957 24 New Italian Socialist Party 360694 22 −101 National List bis 347552 19 New black Communist Party of Italy 268191 19 +4 Italian Liberal Party 233521 15 −28 Constitutional Opposition Italian Democratic Liberal Party 157932 14 −54 Italian Republican Party 133714 7 +1 Social Democracy 111035 10 −19 Peasants' Party of Italy 73569 4 New Lists of Slavs and Germans 62491 4 −5 Sardinian Action Party 24059 2 New National Fasces 18062 1 New #6a707f 448949 0 11939452 Popular vote #ddd 550px 500px LN National Fascist Party 64.94 PPI Italian People's Party (1919) 9.01 PSU Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922) 5.90 PSI Italian Socialist Party 5.03 PCdI Italian Communist Party 3.74 PLI Italian Liberal Party 3.26 OC Italian Democratic Liberal Party 2.20 PRI Italian Republican Party 1.87 DS Social Democracy (Italy, 1922) 1.55 PdCdI Peasants' Party of Italy 1.03 SeT Lists of Slavs and Germans 0.87 PSdAz Sardinian Action Party 0.34 FN #6a707f 0.25 Parliamentary seats #ddd 550px 500px LN National Fascist Party 69.91 PPI Italian People's Party (1919) 7.29 PSU Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922) 4.49 PSI Italian Socialist Party 4.11 PCdI Italian Communist Party 3.55 PLI Italian Liberal Party 2.80 OC PLDI 2.62 DS Social Democracy (Italy, 1922) 1.87 PRI Italian Republican Party 1.31 PdCdI Peasants' Party of Italy 0.75 SeT Lists of Slavs and Germans 0.75 PSdAz Sardinian Action Party 0.37 FN #6a707f 0.19 By region RegionFirst partySecond partyThird partyAbruzzo-MoliseLNPSUOCApuliaLNPLIPCdIBasilicataLNOCDSCalabriaLNOCDSCampaniaLNOCPSUEmilia-RomagnaLNPPIPSULazioLNPPIPSILiguriaLNPSUPPILombardyLNPPIPSUMarcheLNPPIPSUPiedmontLNPLIPSUSardiniaLNPSdAzPPISicilyLNDSOCTrentinoLNPPISeTTuscanyLNPSUPPIUmbriaLNPPIPSIVenetoLNPPIPSIVenezia GiuliaLNPPISeT Analysis and aftermath thumb|Postcard promoted by the Fascist propaganda, showing their view of the conflict between fascists and socialists Voter intimidation allowed the National List and its decoy "National List bis" to secure 64.94% of all valid votes cast, thus winning a two-thirds supermajority under the Acerbo Law with a total of 374 seats (355 for the main list, 19 for the decoy): National Fasces (a splinter fascist party that opposed Benito Mussolini) won a single seat with 0.25%. Opposition parties that took part in the previous election suffered substantial losses due to the Acerbo law: the biggest losses were borne by the Italian Socialist Party (from 123 to 22 seats) and the Italian People's Party (from 108 to 39); the Peasants' Party of Italy, Sardinian Action Party and Unitary Socialist Party entered the chamber for the first time, but their presence was short-lived as by November 1926 (according to Nathaniel Cantor for the Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology in 1936), Italy became a one-party state under the National Fascist Party.Cantor Nathaniel The Fascist Political Prisoners Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology 1936 27 2 169 https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2629&context=jclc 23 August 2026 Northwestern University School of Law Chicago en-us 0091-4169 live https://web.archive.org/web/20171202104607/https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2629&context=jclc 2 December 2017 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.Speech of 30 May 1924 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.December 2020 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.The Anatomy of Fascism Paxton Robert Robert Paxton 2004 Alfred A. Knopf New York City 1-4000-4094-9 - Read online, registration required 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.Mussolini Benito discorso sul delitto Matteotti http://it.wikisource.org/wiki/Italia_-_3_gennaio_1925,_Discorso_sul_delitto_Matteotti wikisource.it 24 June 2013 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. References Category:General elections in Italy General Italy Category:Italian fascism