Partito Nazionale Fascista
From Metapedia
The Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF, National Fascist Party) was an Italian party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of Fascism (previously represented by groups known as Fasci; see also Italian fascism). The party ruled Italy for twenty-one years from 1922 to 1943 under a centralized model of government.
It is currently the only party whose reformation is explicitly banned by the Constitution of Italy, "under any form" (twelfth temporary disposition). In practice, several small fascist parties exist in Italy, whose existence is not currently disputed.
[edit] History
Founded in Rome on November 7 1921, it marked the transformation of the paramilitary Fasci Italiani di Combattimento into a more coherent political group (the Fasci di Combattimento had been founded by Mussolini in Milan's Piazza San Sepolcro, on March 23 1919).
The PNF was instrumental in directing and popularizing support for Mussolini's ideology. It was the main agent of the coup d'état attempted as the October 28 1922 March on Rome (although a parallel agreement between Mussolini and King Victor Emmanuel III was arguably more important).
After the drastic modifying of electoral legislation (the Acerbo Law), the PNF clearly won the elections of April 1924. Legislation passed in 1928 made it the only legal party of the country, a situation which lasted until 1943.
The party was dissolved upon the arrest of Mussolini after the coup inside the Grand Fascist Council, led by Dino Grandi on July 24, 1943. It was officially banned by Pietro Badoglio's government on July 27.
After the German-engineered Unternehmen Eiche liberated Mussolini in September, the PNF was revived as the Republican Fascist Party (Partito Fascista Repubblicano - PFR; September 13), as the single party of the Northern and German-protected Italian Social Republic (the Salò Republic). Its secretary was Alessandro Pavolini. The PFR did not outlast Mussolini's murder and the disappearance of the Salò state in April 1945.
