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 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
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. 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.
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.
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.
Parliamentary parties and leaders PartyIdeologyLeaderNational List (LN)FascismBenito MussoliniItalian People's Party (PPI)Christian democracyAlcide De GasperiUnitary Socialist Party (PSU)Social democracyGiacomo MatteottiItalian Socialist Party (PSI)SocialismTito Oro NobiliCommunist Party of Italy (PCdI)CommunismAntonio GramsciItalian Liberal Party (PLI)LiberalismLuigi FactaItalian Democratic Liberal Party (PLDI)LiberalismAntonio SalandraItalian Republican Party (PRI)RepublicanismEugenio ChiesaSocial Democracy (DS)Social liberalismGiovanni Antonio ColonnaNational Fasces (FN)Intransigent fascismCesare Forni
Results
By region RegionFirst partySecond partyThird partyAbruzzo-MoliseLNPSUPLDIApuliaLNPLIPCdIBasilicataLNPLDIDSCalabriaLNPLDIDSCampaniaLNPLDIPSUEmilia-RomagnaLNPPIPSULazioLNPPIPSILiguriaLNPSUPPILombardyLNPPIPSUMarcheLNPPIPSUPiedmontLNPLIPSUSardiniaLNPSdAzPPISicilyLNDSPLDITrentinoLNPPISeTTuscanyLNPSUPPIUmbriaLNPPIPSIVenetoLNPPIPSIVenezia GiuliaLNPPISeT
Analysis and aftermath
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), the Italian People's Party (from 108 to 39), and the Italian Democratic Liberal Party (from 68 to 14); 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.
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.
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. - 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. 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.
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