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National Fascist Party

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Template:Infobox Italy Former Political Party

The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista; PNF) 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).

It is currently the only party whose reformation is explicitly banned by the Constitution of Italy.

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 highly controversial elections of April 1924. Law 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 Nazi-engineered Unternehmen Eiche liberated Mussolini in September, the Party was revived as the Republican Fascist Party (Partito Fascista Repubblicano - PFR; September 13), as the single party of the Northern and Nazi-protected Italian Social Republic (the Salò Republic). Its secretary was Alessandro Pavolini. The PFR did not outlast Mussolini's execution and the disappearance of the Salò state in April 1945.

Secretaries of the PNF

  • Michele Bianchi (November 1921 - January 1923)
  • multiple presidency (January 1923 - October 1923)
Triumvirate: Michele Bianchi, Nicola Sansanelli, Giuseppe Bastianini
  • Francesco Giunta (October 15 1923 - April 22 1924)
  • multiple presidency (April 23 1924 - February 15 1925)
Quattuorvirate: Roberto Forges Davanzati, Cesare Rossi, Giovanni Marinelli, Alessandro Melchiorri
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