«I bring to your majesty the Italy of Vittorio Veneto»- Corriere.it

On October 30, 1922, at 11 in the morning, he arrived at the Quirinale from King Vittorio Emanuele III, to receive the task of forming the new government, a leader very different from his liberal predecessors. He is only 39 years old, comes from working class backgrounds and wears a black shirt under his jacket. But above all, the way in which Benito Mussolini reached this goal is anomalous, by weighing not the parliamentary representation (he has only 35 deputies out of 535), but the threat of the armed fascists gathered around Rome with the intention of occupying the city .

Beginning in the fall of 1920 the squadristi sowed terror, targeting the structures of the socialist movement and the local red administrations. Particularly violent, with a large number of murders, was the campaign for the political elections of May 15, 1921, which saw the black shirts present themselves in the national Blocs promoted by the elderly liberal leader Giovanni Giolitti. In the autumn of 1921 the National Fascist Party (Pnf) was born, which within a year, according to the estimates of the historian Emilio Gentile, reached 250,000 members.

On 24 October 1922 a large meeting of the PNF took place in Naples, during which Mussolini reclaimed leadership of the nation. In situations like these, he proclaimed, “it is the force that ultimately decides”. Thus began preparations for a coup on the capital, the “march on Rome”. The so-called quadrumviri were called to direct it: Italo Balbo, the main squad leader; Michele Bianchi, secretary of the PNF; Cesare Maria De Vecchi, well connected in court environments; Emilio De Bono, a retired general as guarantor to the military.

The mobilization of the fascists began on 27 October. They occupied prefectures, barracks, railway stations, telegraph offices. And in the night they began to concentrate around Rome. In the meantime, Mussolini flaunted an Olympian calm: in the evening he showed up at the theater, where The Swan by the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnar was being staged. The malicious say that he remained in Milan to be able to reach Switzerland more easily, in case of failure of the showdown.

In the early hours of 28 October, the weak government led by Luigi Facta approved a state of siege to entrust the military with the task of restoring order. But King Vittorio Emanuele III refused to sign the relative decree, for fear of coming to open confrontation. And Mussolini has found the knife on the side of the handle. Precisely 28 October, under the regime, will be celebrated as the anniversary of the march on Rome, even if that day the squadristi are still waiting around the capital, cold and soaked from the rain. The next day Mussolini rejected the idea of ​​joining an executive headed by the right-wing liberal exponent Antonio Salandra, so the king summoned him to Rome to entrust him with the job.

Leaving in a sleeping car from Milan, the future dictator arrived in Rome on the morning of 30 October after two train changes, as the railway lines were interrupted by the military to block the advance of the fascists. The conversation at the Quirinal with the sovereign lasts more than an hour. Nothing is known about the contents, only the initial words addressed by Mussolini to the king leaked: «I ask your majesty’s forgiveness if I am forced to present myself again in a black shirt, back from the battle, fortunately bloodless, which had to be engaged. I bring to your majesty the Italy of Vittorio Veneto, reconsecrated by victory, and I am your majesty’s faithful servant». Having achieved his aim, the head of fascism has every interest in showing himself obsequious to whoever gave him the go-ahead.

Around 12.15 Mussolini leaves the Quirinale and moves to the Hotel Savoia, where he has taken up residence. Here he receives the personalities to whom he intends to entrust the ministries. The chronicles describe him as “radiant”. In the afternoon, while the black shirts invade the capital provoking bloody clashes with leftist militants in popular neighborhoods, General Armando Diaz, the victor of Vittorio Veneto, and Admiral Paolo Thaon di Revel arrive at the hotel. They will be the Ministers of War and the Navy. Mussolini appears with them on the balcony in front of a cheering crowd: «Shout cheers – he exclaims – to the architects of victory. They have agreed to work with me to give the nation a government worthy of it.”

At 19.20 the new head of government returns to the Quirinal to submit the list of ministers to the king, which Vittorio Emanuele III approves. In addition to the presidency of the Council, Mussolini holds the crucial departments of the Interior and Foreign Affairs for himself. There are three fascist ministers: Aldo Oviglio at Justice, ready to launch a providential amnesty for the wrongdoings of the squadristi; to Finance Alberto de’ Stefani, an economist appreciated by business circles; to the liberated lands (those annexed after the war) Giovanni Giuriati, determined to use an iron fist against the German and Slavic minorities. Also going to the Colonies is Luigi Federzoni, leader of the nationalist movement which will join the PNF within a few months.

A name of undisputed prestige is that of the idealist philosopher Giovanni Gentile, who accepts the invitation to assume responsibility for public education having received full assurance of the autonomy it will enjoy in the task of reforming the school. For the moment he enters the government as an independent, but he will end up openly siding with Mussolini, so much so that in 1925 he writes a manifesto of fascist intellectuals.

Although the government is formally a coalition, internally the balance of power is clearly unbalanced. The Catholic-inspired People’s Party (PPI), which has almost three times as many deputies as the PNF (102 against 35), receives only two dicasteries: the Work to Stefano Cavazzoni and the Treasure to Vincenzo Tangorra. The latter, however, will die in December and the interim ministry will be assumed by the fascist de’ Stefani. Even the liberals and democrats get crumbs.

On the other hand, Mussolini has no regard for the balance existing in a Parliament he despises, as demonstrated by the arrogant words he uttered on November 16, 1922, in the famous «bivouac speech», when the government presented itself to the Chamber for confidence: «I could have turned this deaf and gray classroom into a bivouac of manipulatives. I could have barred Parliament and set up a government exclusively of fascists. I could: but I didn’t, at least at this first moment, want to». It’s not just a threat, it’s a political agenda.