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All 535 seats in the Chamber of Deputies 268 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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PSI PPI BN PLD PLI DS PDR SeT | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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General elections were held in Italy on 15 May 1921. [1] It was the first election in which the recently acquired regions of Trentino-Alto Adige, Venezia Giulia, Zara and Lagosta island elected deputies, many of whom were from the Germanic and South Slavic ethnic groups. [2] [3]
From 1919 to 1920, Italy was shocked by a period of intense social conflict following the First World War known as the Biennio Rosso (Red Biennium). [4] The revolutionary period was followed by the violent reaction of the Fascist Blackshirt militia and eventually by the March on Rome of Benito Mussolini in 1922.
The Biennio Rosso took place in a context of economic crisis at the end of the war, with high unemployment and political instability. It was characterized by mass strikes, worker manifestations as well as self-management experiments through land and factories occupations. [4] In Turin and Milan, workers councils were formed and many factory occupations took place under the leadership of anarcho-syndicalists. The agitations also extended to the agricultural areas of the Po Valley and were accompanied by peasant strikes, rural unrests and guerrilla conflicts between left-wing and right-wing militias.
In the general election of 1921, the Liberal governing coalition, strengthened by the joining of Fascist candidates in the National Bloc (33 of whom were elected deputies), came short of a majority. The Italian Socialist Party, weakened by the split of the Communist Party of Italy, lost many votes and seats, while the Italian People's Party was steady around 20%. The Socialists were stronger in Lombardy (41.9%), than in their historical strongholds of Piedmont (28.6%), Emilia-Romagna (33.4%) and Tuscany (31.0%), due to the presence of the Communists (11.9, 5.2 and 10.5%), while the Populars were confirmed the largest party of Veneto (36.5%) and the Liberal parties in most Southern regions. [5]
Party | Ideology | Leader | Status before election | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Italian Socialist Party (PSI) | Socialism | Giovanni Bacci | Opposition | |
Italian People's Party (PPI) | Christian democracy | Luigi Sturzo | Government | |
National Bloc (BN) | Conservatism | Giovanni Giolitti | Government | |
Democratic Liberal Party (PLD) | Liberalism | Francesco Saverio Nitti | Government | |
Liberal Party (PL) | Liberalism | Luigi Facta | Government | |
Social Democracy (DS) | Social liberalism | Giovanni Antonio Colonna | Government | |
Communist Party of Italy (PCdI) | Communism | Amedeo Bordiga | Opposition | |
Italian Republican Party (PRI) | Republicanism | Eugenio Chiesa | Opposition | |
Reformist Democratic Party (PDR) | Social liberalism | Several | Opposition | |
Combatants' Party (PdC) | Veteran interests | Several | Government |
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Italian Socialist Party | 1,631,435 | 24.69 | 123 | −33 | |
Italian People's Party | 1,347,305 | 20.39 | 108 | +8 | |
National Bloc | 1,260,007 | 19.07 | 105 | New | |
Democratic Liberal Party | 684,855 | 10.36 | 68 | −28 | |
Liberal Party | 470,605 | 7.12 | 43 | +2 | |
Social Democracy | 309,191 | 4.68 | 29 | −31 | |
Communist Party of Italy | 304,719 | 4.61 | 15 | New | |
Italian Republican Party | 124,924 | 1.89 | 6 | −3 | |
Reformist Democratic Party | 122,087 | 1.85 | 11 | New | |
Combatants' Party | 113,839 | 1.72 | 10 | −10 | |
Lists of Slavs and Germans | 88,648 | 1.34 | 9 | New | |
Economic Party | 53,382 | 0.81 | 5 | −2 | |
Independent Socialists | 37,892 | 0.57 | 1 | ±0 | |
Dissident Populars | 29,703 | 0.45 | 0 | New | |
Fasci Italiani di Combattimento | 29,549 | 0.45 | 2 | New | |
Total | 6,608,141 | 100.00 | 535 | +27 | |
Valid votes | 6,608,141 | 98.61 | |||
Invalid/blank votes | 93,355 | 1.39 | |||
Total votes | 6,701,496 | 100.00 | |||
Registered voters/turnout | 11,477,210 | 58.39 | |||
Source: National Institute of Statistics |
Region | PSI | PPI | PLD | DS | FIC | PE | PSRI | PL | PCdI | ANI | SeT | PRI | PSdA | PdC | SI |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Piedmont | 16 | 12 | 13 | 1 | 3 | 4 | – | 1 | 5 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
Liguria | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
Lombardy | 27 | 19 | 1 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Veneto | 17 | 19 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
Emilia-Romagna | 14 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 2 | – | – | 2 | – | – | 2 | – | – | – |
Tuscany | 12 | 8 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
Marche | 4 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | – | – | 1 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – |
Umbria | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Lazio | 4 | 3 | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | – | – | – | 3 | – | 1 | – | – | – |
Abruzzi | 3 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 2 | – | 1 | 1 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
Campania–Molise | 4 | 9 | 16 | 18 | – | – | 6 | 2 | – | 2 | – | – | – | 2 | – |
Apulia | 6 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 3 | – | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Basilicata | 1 | – | 4 | 1 | – | 1 | 3 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – |
Calabrie | 2 | 3 | 7 | 5 | – | 1 | 3 | – | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
Sicily | 4 | 7 | 7 | 17 | – | 6 | 8 | 2 | – | 1 | – | – | – | – | – |
Sardinia | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | – | – |
Venezia Tridentina | 2 | 5 | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | – | 4 | – | – | – | – |
Venezia Giulia | – | – | – | – | 4 | – | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 5 | – | – | – | – |
Italy | 124 | 108 | 85 | 65 | 36 | 27 | 25 | 17 | 15 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 |
Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the prime minister of Italy five times between 1892 and 1921. He is the longest-serving democratically elected prime minister in Italian history, and the second-longest serving overall after Benito Mussolini. A prominent leader of the Historical Left and the Liberal Union, he is widely considered one of the most wealthy, powerful and important politicians in Italian history; due to his dominant position in Italian politics, Giolitti was accused by critics of being an authoritarian leader and a parliamentary dictator.
The March on Rome was an organized mass demonstration in October 1922 which resulted in Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party ascending to power in the Kingdom of Italy. In late October 1922, Fascist Party leaders planned a march on the capital. On 28 October, the fascist demonstrators and Blackshirt paramilitaries approached Rome; Prime Minister Luigi Facta wished to declare a state of siege, but this was overruled by King Victor Emmanuel III, who, fearing bloodshed, persuaded Facta to resign by threatening to abdicate. On 30 October 1922, the King appointed Mussolini as Prime Minister, thereby transferring political power to the fascists without armed conflict. On 31 October the fascist Blackshirts paraded in Rome, while Mussolini formed his coalition government.
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Filippo Turati was an Italian sociologist, criminologist, poet and socialist politician.
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The Italian Anarchist Communist Union, or Italian Anarchist Union, was an Italian political organization founded in Florence in 1919. It played an important role during the unrest of the Red Biennium, before it was suppressed by the fascist regime in 1926.
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Events from the year 1921 in Italy.
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