1934 Italian general election

Last updated

1934 Italian general election
Flag of Italy (1861-1946) crowned.svg
  1929 25 March 1934 1946  

All 400 seats in the Chamber of Deputies
201 seats needed for a majority
 Majority party
  Benito Mussolini portrait as dictator (retouched).jpg
Leader Benito Mussolini
Party National Fascist Party
Seats won400
Seat changeSteady2.svg
Popular vote10,045,477
Percentage99.85%
SwingIncrease2.svg1.55pp

Prime Minister before election

Benito Mussolini
National Fascist Party

Elected Prime Minister

Benito Mussolini
National Fascist Party

General elections were held in Italy on 26 March 1934. At the time, the country was a single-party state with the National Fascist Party (PNF) as the only legally permitted party.

Contents

Following a parliamentary reform enacted in 1928 by the Chamber of Deputies and Senate, the elections were held in the form of a referendum. The Grand Council of the PNF, now an official state organ, was allowed to compose a single party list to be either approved or rejected by the voters. The list put forward was ultimately approved by 99.84% of voters. [1] The overwhelming majority provoked Benito Mussolini to dub the election the "second referendum of Fascism."

These would be the last elections of any sort held under Fascist rule. In 1939, the Chamber of Deputies was replaced with the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations, whose members were not elected but instead nominated by party organs.

Background

In 1929 a concordat with the Vatican was signed, ending decades of struggle between the Italian state and the Papacy that dated back to the 1870 takeover of the Papal States by the House of Savoy during the unification of Italy. The Lateran treaties, by which the Italian state was at last recognized by the Catholic Church, and the independence of Vatican City was recognized by the Italian state, were so much appreciated by the ecclesiastic hierarchy that Pope Pius XI acclaimed Mussolini as "the Man of Providence". [2]

During 1930s Mussolini also led the armed local fascist militia, the MVSN or "Blackshirts", which terrorized incipient resistances in the cities and provinces and established the OVRA, an institutionalized secret police that carried official state support. In this way he succeeded in keeping power in his own hands and preventing the emergence of any rival.

After Adolf Hitler came into power, threatening Italian interests in Austria and the Danube basin, Mussolini proposed the Four Power Pact with Britain, France and Germany in 1933. When the Austrian 'austro-fascist' Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss with dictatorial power was assassinated on 25 July 1934, by National-Socialist supporters, Mussolini even threatened Germany with war in the event of a German invasion of Austria. Mussolini for a period of time continued strictly opposing any German attempt to obtain Anschluss and promoted the ephemeral Stresa Front against Germany in 1935.

Electoral system

Facade of the Palazzo Braschi, Rome, in 1934, with Mussolini's face and the word "SI" (yes) repeated. Palazzo Braschi Fascist Poster, 1934.png
Facade of the Palazzo Braschi, Rome, in 1934, with Mussolini's face and the word "SI" (yes) repeated.

As for the 1929 election, universal male suffrage was restricted only to men who were members of a trade union or an association, to soldiers and to members of the clergy.

The election was a plebiscite; voters could vote "Yes" or "No" to approve or disapprove the list of deputies nominated by the Grand Council of Fascism. The voter was provided with two equal-sized sheets, white outside, inside bearing the words "Do you approve the list of members appointed by the Grand National Council of Fascism?" The "Yes" ballot paper was decorated with the Italian tricolour and a fasces, the "No" paper was plain.

The voter would be presented with both ballot papers, choosing one of the two and discarding the other in the voting booth. He would then fold over his chosen paper and present it to the electoral officials to ensure it was sealed. The process would not be considered free and fair by modern standards.

Theoretically, if the "No" option had won, the election would have been repeated with the admission of other electoral lists. [3]

Results

Scheda per la votazione - Legislatura XXIX - Elezioni politiche 25 marzo 1934 - Fronte.jpeg
Scheda per la votazione - Elezioni politiche 25 marzo 1934 - No.jpg
Ballot cards for yes and no options. The voters simply folded the card with their preference and discarded the other inside the voting booth.
Italian Parliament Fascism.svg
PartyVotes%Seats+/–
National Fascist Party 10,045,47799.854000
Against15,2010.15
Total10,060,678100.004000
Valid votes10,060,67899.99
Invalid/blank votes1,3000.01
Total votes10,061,978100.00
Registered voters/turnout10,526,50495.59
Source: Direct Democracy

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fascism</span> Far-right, authoritarian ultranationalistic political ideology

Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultranationalist political ideology and movement, characterized by a dictatorial leader, centralized autocracy, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, belief in a natural social hierarchy, subordination of individual interests for the perceived good of the nation or race, and strong regimentation of society and the economy. Opposed to anarchism, democracy, pluralism, egalitarianism, liberalism, socialism, and Marxism, fascism is placed on the far-right wing within the traditional left–right spectrum.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope Pius XI</span> Head of the Catholic Church from 1922 to 1939

Pope Pius XI, born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was the Bishop of Rome and supreme pontiff of the Catholic Church from 6 February 1922 to 10 February 1939. He also became the first sovereign of the Vatican City State upon its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929. He remained head of the Catholic Church until his death in February 1939. His papal motto was "Pax Christi in Regno Christi", translated as "The Peace of Christ in the Reign of Christ".

The relations between the Catholic Church and the state have been constantly evolving with various forms of government, some of them controversial in retrospect. In its history, the Church has had to deal with various concepts and systems of governance, from the Roman Empire to the medieval divine right of kings, from nineteenth- and twentieth-century concepts of democracy and pluralism to the appearance of left- and right-wing dictatorial regimes. The Second Vatican Council's decree Dignitatis humanae stated that religious freedom is a civil right that should be recognized in constitutional law.

Clerical fascism is an ideology that combines the political and economic doctrines of fascism with clericalism. The term has been used to describe organizations and movements that combine religious elements with fascism, receive support from religious organizations which espouse sympathy for fascism, or fascist regimes in which clergy play a leading role.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michele Bianchi</span> Italian revolutionary syndicalist leader (1883–1930)

Michele Bianchi was an Italian revolutionary syndicalist leader who took a position in the Unione Italiana del Lavoro (UIL). He was among the founding members of the Fascist movement. He was widely seen as the dominant leader of the leftist, syndicalist wing of the National Fascist Party. He took an active role in the "interventionist left" where he "espoused an alliance between nationalism and syndicalism." He was one of the most influential politicians of the regime before his succumbing to tuberculosis in 1930. He was also one of the grand architects behind the "Great List" which secured the parliamentary majority in favor of the fascists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Giacomo Acerbo</span> Italian economist and politician (1888–1969)

Giacomo Acerbo, Baron of Aterno, was an Italian economist and politician. He is best known for having drafted the Acerbo Law that allowed the National Fascist Party (PNF) to achieve a supermajority of two-thirds of the Italian Parliament after the 1924 Italian general election, which saw intimidation tactics against voters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Grand Council of Fascism</span> Central body of the government of Fascist Italy from 1928 to 1943

The Grand Council of Fascism was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist regime in Italy, which held and applied great power to control the institutions of government. It was created as a body of the National Fascist Party in 1922, and became a state body on 9 December 1928. The council usually met at the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, which was also the seat of the head of the Italian government. The Council became extinct following a series of events in 1943, in which Benito Mussolini was voted out as the Prime Minister of Italy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian fascism</span> Fascist ideology as developed in Italy

Italian fascism, also classical fascism and Fascism, is the original fascist ideology, which Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini developed in Italy. The ideology of Italian Fascism is associated with a series of political parties led by Mussolini: the National Fascist Party (PNF), which governed the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, and the Republican Fascist Party (PFR), which governed the Italian Social Republic from 1943 to 1945. Italian fascism also is associated with the post–war Italian Social Movement (MSI) and later Italian neo-fascist political organisations.

General elections were held in Italy on 6 April 1924 to elect the members of the Chamber of Deputies. 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Fascist Party</span> Italian fascist political party founded by Benito Mussolini

The National Fascist Party was a political party in Italy, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Italian fascism and as a reorganisation of the previous Italian Fasces of Combat. The party ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 when Fascists took power with the March on Rome until the fall of the Fascist regime in 1943, when Mussolini was deposed by the Grand Council of Fascism. It was succeeded, in the territories under the control of the Italian Social Republic, by the Republican Fascist Party, and ultimately dissolved at the end of World War II.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fascism in Europe</span>

Fascist movements in Europe were the set of various fascist ideologies which were practiced by governments and political organizations in Europe during the 20th century. Fascism was born in Italy following World War I, and other fascist movements, influenced by Italian Fascism, subsequently emerged across Europe. Among the political doctrines which are identified as ideological origins of fascism in Europe are the combining of a traditional national unity and revolutionary anti-democratic rhetoric which was espoused by the integral nationalist Charles Maurras and the revolutionary syndicalist Georges Sorel.

Non abbiamo bisogno is a Roman Catholic encyclical published on 29 June 1931 by Pope Pius XI.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chamber of Fasces and Corporations</span> Legislature of the Kingdom of Italy, 1939 to 1943

Chamber of Fasces and Corporations was the lower house of the legislature of the Kingdom of Italy from 23 March 1939 to 5 August 1943, during the height of the regime of Benito Mussolini's National Fascist Party.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benito Mussolini</span> Prime Minister of Italy from 1922 to 1943

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian dictator who founded and led the National Fascist Party (PNF). He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922, until his deposition in 1943, as well as Duce of Italian fascism from the establishment of the Italian Fasces of Combat in 1919, until his execution in 1945. As a dictator and founder of fascism, Mussolini inspired the international spread of fascist movements during the interwar period.

General elections were held in Italy on 24 March 1929 to elect the members of the Chamber of Deputies. By this time, the country was a single-party state with the National Fascist Party (PNF) as the only legally permitted party.

Pietro Tacchi Venturi was a Jesuit priest and historian who served as the unofficial liaison between Benito Mussolini, the Fascist leader of Italy from 1922 to 1943, and Popes Pius XI and Pius XII. He was also one of the architects of the 1929 Lateran Treaty, which ended the "Roman Question", and recognized the sovereignty of Vatican City, which made it an actor of international relations. A claimed attempt to assassinate Venturi with a paper knife, one year before the treaty's completion, made headlines around the world. Venturi had begun the process of reconciliation by convincing Mussolini to donate the valuable library of the Palazzo Chigi to the Vatican.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Federal State of Austria</span> Period of the First Austrian Republic under one-party austrofascist dictatorship (1934–1938)

The Federal State of Austria was a continuation of the First Austrian Republic between 1934 and 1938 when it was a one-party state led by the conservative, nationalist, and corporatist Fatherland Front. The Ständestaat concept, derived from the notion of Stände, was advocated by leading regime politicians such as Engelbert Dollfuss and Kurt Schuschnigg. The result was an authoritarian government based on a mix of Italian Fascist and conservative Catholic influences.

Events from the year 1922 in Italy. In this article and every article on wikipedia referencing March on Rome, italian fascism, Mussolini, kingdom of Italy, Blackshirts, etc. the date is given as 1922 rather than 1932. Britannica.com also uses 1922.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian Parliament (1928–1939)</span> Parliament of Italy

The Italian Parliament (1928–1939) was the parliament of Italy as it existed following the constitutional reforms enacted after the Italian general election, 1924. It was, in turn, substantially restructured in 1939. This early Fascist-era legislature was a continuation of the bicameral parliament that had existed prior to 1928, though the character, structure and responsibilities of each house were altered to various degrees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fascist Italy</span> Period of Italian history (1922–1943)

Fascist Italy is a term which is used to describe the Kingdom of Italy when it was governed by the National Fascist Party from 1922 to 1943 with Benito Mussolini as prime minister and dictator. The Italian Fascists imposed totalitarian rule and they also crushed political opposition, while they simultaneously promoted economic modernization, traditional social values and a rapprochement with the Roman Catholic Church.

References

  1. Italy, 24 May 1929: Fascist single list Direct Democracy (in German)
  2. Fattorini, Emma (2011). Hitler, Mussolini and the Vatican : Pope Pius XI and the speech that was never made ([English ed.] ed.). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. p. xi. ISBN   978-0-7456-4488-2.
  3. Testo Unico 2 settembre 1928, n. 1993