Last Term As Prime Minister and The Rise of Fascism
Giolitti opposed Italy's entry into World War I in 1915 on the grounds that Italy was militarily unprepared. In the electoral campaign of 1919 he charged that an aggressive minority had dragged Italy into war against the will of the majority, putting him at odds with the growing movement of Fascists. He became Prime Minister for the last time from 1920-1921 during Italy's "red years," when workers’ occupations of factories increased the fear of a communist takeover led the political establishment to tolerate the rise of the fascists of Benito Mussolini. Giolitti enjoyed the support of the fascist squadristi and did not try to stop their forceful takeovers of city and regional government or their violence against their political opponents.
He called for new elections in May 1921 but the disappointing results forced him to step down. Still the head of the liberals, he did not resist the country’s drift towards fascism. When Mussolini marched on Rome in October 1922, Giolitti was on vacation in France. He supported Mussolini's government initially – accepting and voting in favour of the controversial Acerbo Law which guaranteed the party gaining at least 25 percent and the largest share of the votes gained two-thirds of the seats in parliament. He shared the widespread hope of that the fascists would become a more moderate and responsible party upon taking power, but withdrew his support in 1924, voting against the law that restricted press freedom.
Read more about this topic: Giovanni Giolitti
Famous quotes containing the words term, prime, minister, rise and/or fascism:
“There’s no term to the work of a scientist.”
—Walter Reisch (1903–1963)
“My prime of youth is but a frost of cares,
My feast of joy is but a dish of pain,
My crop of corn is but a field of tares,
And all my good is but vain hope of gain:
The day is past, and yet I saw no sun,
And now I live, and now my life is done.”
—Chidiock Tichborne (1558–1586)
“Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious antidote
Cleanse the fraught bosom of that perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart?”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Let him go forth radiant,
let life rise in his young breast,
life is radiant,
life is made for beautiful love
and strange ecstasy,
strait, searing body and limbs.”
—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Worst of all, there is no sign of any relaxation of antisemitism. Logically it has nothing to do with Fascism. But the human race is imitative rather than logical; and as Fascism spreads antisemitism spreads.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)