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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Acerbo Law
Parliament of the Kingdom of Italy
  • Amendments to the political electoral law, consolidated text 2 September 1919, n. 1495
Territorial extentKingdom of Italy
Enacted byChamber of Deputies
Enacted bySenate
Assented to byKing Victor Emmanuel III
Assented to18 November 1923
Legislative history
First chamber: Chamber of Deputies
Introduced byGiacomo Acerbo (PNF)
Passed21 July 1923
Second chamber: Senate
Passed14 November 1923
Amends
Royal Decree 2 September 1919, n. 1495
Repealed by
Law 17 May 1928, n.1019
Status: Repealed

The Acerbo Law was an Italian electoral law proposed by Baron Giacomo Acerbo and passed by the Italian Parliament in November 1923. The purpose of it was to give Mussolini's fascist party a majority of deputies. The law was used only in the 1924 general election, which was the last competitive election held in Italy until 1946.

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Transcription

Male: In the last video we left off in 1922 in October where you have several hundreds of thousands of fascists march on Rome, which causes the King to put Benito Mussolini in power and this picture right over here is from Mussolini coming to power from the march on Rome and not only does he get appointed as Prime Minister, but he has dictatorial powers for one year. Those dictatorial powers are also backed up with the Blackshirts,this loose band, kind of a paramillitary group. So he uses his powers and the fact that he has his own force so to speak to continue to just secure more and more power under him over the next few years. By 1923 he makes the Blackshirts actually become a formal national militia, essentially the volunteer militia for national security. In Italian the acronym is the MVSN. So, the Blackshirts become formalized as the MVSN. He also gets Parliament or gets the legislature to pass what's known as the Acerbo Law or Acerbo Law. I'm sure I'm mispronouncing it. Acerbo Law. This is an interesting one because this is a law that allowed whichever majority party, whatever the largest party in the Deputy of Ministers, whatever the largest party in Parliament is that party, as long as they get more than 25% of the vote, they will get 2/3s of the seats in Parliament. This is strange because traditionally in a Parliamentary system if you got ... Let's say you were the largest party and you got 26% of the vote, you still would not have enough seats to govern properly. You would have to form a coalition with several other parties so that you could essentially form a government. But this is saying whoever gets the plurality of votes, whoever gets the most votes without necessarily being a majority, they will be by default become a majority. And you could imagine why the fascists wanted this to happen. They felt that they could get 25% of the votes, one maybe through popular support but also with the help of the coercive tactics of the Blackshirts and then that would give them stronger control in the legislature. Now, the big question is is why would the legislature pass this? Because at this point the fascists were not the dominant party. They did not have a majority in the legislature. In fact, this was why they wanted to pass a law because they didn't have a majority. And once again it's one of those questions of history. Some would say that people were enamored with the fascists. They were enamored with Mussolini. They were eager to have strong leadership. They didn't want this government of coalitions. They wanted one government to be able to take action. On the other side when the votes were happening you actually had Blackshirts in the room. One argument is that there was also an element of pure intimidation. But needless to say the Acerbo Law actually passed. There is irony here because it was unnecessary. In 1924 when you actually have elections you have the fascists getting 2/3s of the vote. Fascists get 2/3 of the vote. Now, many today and many in Italy at the time felt that this was a fraudulent election. They felt the reason why the fascists were able to get so many votes is because they were able to intimidate folks. They were able to commit fraud during the election. They were able to kind of throw other votes out, and one of the most outspoken individuals when it came to criticizing the fascists and their tactics of coming to power was Giacomo Matteotti. He wrote a book about the fascists. He gave two really strong speeches in the Deputy of Ministers where he talks about or the Chamber of Deputies I should say, where he talks about the corruption and the violence of the fascists. A few days after giving those speeches he gets killed by Blackshirts. So, he gets actually quite violently murdered by Blackshirts, and this puts Mussolini at least initially in a bit of a bind. He doesn't want to look like a thug, someone who goes out and just murders people. It's not clear that he actually, Mussolini, was involved in this in any way, but his followers had committed this act. To protest against the murder of Giacomo Matteotti you actually have the entire socialist party boycotts Parliament. This was known as the Aventine Secession or at least the 20th century Aventine Secession. Aventine Secession. It's called the Aventine Secession because if you go back to Roman times 2500 years ago you had the Plebeians secede out of protest from harsh rule and they go to the Aventine Hill. So, it was named after that same idea. The whole reason why the socialists did this is they hoped that by boycotting Parliament that that would convince the King to get rid of Benito Mussolini. Mussolini, as I say, he's also in a bind. He doesn't know quite what to do, and on top of all of this the Blackshirts are telling him, "Look, if you don't take control of the situation, if you don't become a strong ruler we're going to do it without you. We might even overthrow you Mr. Mussolini." In 1925, early 1925, Mussolini makes his famous January speech. 1925, his famous January speech. This is normally viewed as the formal start of his absolute dictatorship. In this Mussolini, instead of the Aventine Secession somehow undermining Mussolini's power because the King did not dismiss Mussolini it actually strengthened Mussolini's power. He used that as a pretext. He said, "Look, all of these deputies they've decided not to show up at Parliament. They've essentially given up their seats, and he bans, he bans the Italian Socialist party. He embraces the Blackshirts. He takes responsibility for them. He doesn't take responsibility directly for Giacomo Matteotti's murder, but he takes responsibility for the Blackshirts, and he gives in kind of classic Mussolini style a somewhat convoluted argument about how strength and violence is going to give stability to the Italian people. Obviously he is an amazing orator. He's very charismatic. This essentially gives him the control he needs, and by the end of 1925 you have the Christmas Eve Law that's passed by Parliament that esentially puts no checks on Mussolini's power, and as you go then into 1926 they more, and more, the fascists under Mussolini take absolute control, absolute power of Italy. So in 1926 they're banning other parties. So, other parties are banned. They're starting to force people to become members of the fascist party if they want roles in the government or even in any type of institution. They're starting to take control of the press. They're starting to have a very strong state police architecture. If this looks familiar based on what we studied about the Nazis it's not a coincidence. Hitler, he admired Mussolini. In fact, Mussolini's march on Rome inspired Hitler to attempt his Beer Hall Putsch in 1923. A lot of these tactics that brought Mussolini to power you see kind of a parallel in what brought Hitler to power only about seven years later.

Background

In 1922, Benito Mussolini became the prime minister of Italy as a result of the March on Rome. However, he still only had 35 deputies in Parliament and 10 Nationalist allies. He was in a weak position and relied on the coalition with other parties that could easily unravel and force King Victor Emmanuel III to dismiss him. The idea was to change the voting system from proportional representation to a system which would allow Mussolini to have a clear majority.[1]

Terms of the law

The Acerbo Law stated that the party gaining the largest share of the votes – provided they had gained at least 25 per cent of the votes – gained two-thirds of the seats in parliament. The remaining third was shared amongst the other parties proportionally.[2]

Reasoning

Mussolini could only count on the support of 35 Fascist deputies and 10 Nationalists. The law was passed on a majority vote. The obvious question is why a majority of deputies from other parties voted for the law knowing that one way or another Mussolini would gain the 25% required. The Socialists voted against it but made no effort to coordinate other parties to oppose it. The Catholic Italian People's Party were divided and leaderless after Mussolini had engineered the dismissal of Luigi Sturzo. The official policy was to abstain but 14 deputies voted for the measure. The smaller Liberal parties generally voted in favour. They lacked clear direction and many believed Mussolini's talk of strong government or hoped to keep their positions. There is no doubt that the presence of armed squadristi in the Chamber intimidated many into voting for the measure.

The 1924 election

While an election was held straight afterwards under the new rules, the result has to be seriously questioned given the widespread violence against Mussolini's opposition, along with voter intimidation and electoral fraud. Consequently, his opponents were demoralised and in disarray, while many of the new Fascist deputies were ex-Liberal deputies who commanded a substantial personal following, especially in the South.[3]

The widespread voter fraud was denounced by the leader of the Unitary Socialist Party Giacomo Matteotti in a speech to the Chamber of Deputies on 30 May 1924. Matteotti was subsequently kidnapped and murdered by Fascist militiamen led by Amerigo Dumini. The murder caused uproar and outrage in Italy and abroad, causing a constitutional crisis that would eventually lead to the establishment of the fascist dictatorship in Italy.[4]

Repeal

Following the transformation of Italy into a one-party State in 1926, the Acerbo Law became obsolete. In 1928, the Italian Parliament (now purged of any serious opposition) overwhelmingly passed a new electoral law, known as Rocco Law from his proponent Alfredo Rocco; the new Law turned Italian elections into a plebiscite on a single list of candidates selected by the Grand Council of Fascism among members of the National Fascist Party and affiliated organizations.

References

  1. ^ «Benito Mussolini had no certainty of being able to prevail at the polls, and he had had very bad electoral experiences»: Storie di Storia / 13. 1924: le ultime elezioni prima del fascismo, La Repubblica, 20th September 2022.
  2. ^ Boffa, Federico (2004-02-01). "Italy and the Antitrust Law: an Efficient Delay?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-05. Retrieved 2008-10-05.
  3. ^ DeGrand, Alexander (1995). Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. New York, New York: Routledge. p. 26. ISBN 0-415-10598-6.
  4. ^ "The Murder and Trials". House-Museum Giacomo Matteotti. Retrieved 2024-03-05.
This page was last edited on 11 March 2024, at 11:50
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