Mussolini’s contact with Hitler was also unpopular with the Italian masses. His extremist influence upon the regime became more and more apparent with the introduction of true fascist institutions and laws. With a Jewish population of between 45,000 and 70,000 by 1938, Mussolini enforced laws of Jewish suppression in Italy, which included the exclusion of Jews from higher education, professions and all civil service, and forbade the intermarriage of Jews with Italians, to preserve the purity of the Italian race. Part of the purpose of this was Mussolini’s desire to entirely fascistise the entire nation, and any Jews showing them to be true fascists, or possessing those qualities that Mussolini held to be Italian, were allowed to integrate into society. However these laws were very unpopular in Italy and were directly linked to Hitler’s influence. They were also opposed and condemned by the Catholic Church, which still possessed a great influence over society in Italy, Pope Pius XI having already condemned Nazi racialism only a year before.
The build up of friction between the Western Powers, with Germany at the forefront became the real test and demonstrator of Mussolini’s power. His ally Hitler kept him in the background, a position which he regarded as an insult to his people, and with the German invasion of Poland in September 1939 he found himself forced to take a stance he termed as Nonbelligerence. It was a war for which Italy was not ready, and this decision was welcomed enthusiastically by the Italian people:
“The Duce is convinced of the necessity of remaining neutral, but he is not at all happy. Whenever he can he reverts to the possibility of action. The Italian people, however, are happy about the decisions taken.” (Cianos diaries sept 3 1939, pg 143)
However, with the German victory in France Mussolini saw his chance to enter the war, thus avoiding heavy conflict and, he believed, being able to take the spoils of victory with the re-allotment of defeated European territory.
Against the advice of his government, Mussolini declared war on 10th June 1940, plunging the country into a struggle which he optimistically believed was near an end. With the entry into the war, it became quickly evident that Italy’s illusion of supremacy was groundless as it soon found itself subordinate to Germany. Mussolini’s offers of military aid in France were declined, instead with offers of aerial aid in smaller conflicts such as the bombing of the Suez, prompting Mussolini’s Foreign Minister and son-in-law Count Ciano’s comment “Evidently he [Hitler] does not place much trust in us.” The subsequent route of the war did little to impress the Italian people, the German invasion of Romania without any conference with Italy showed their inadequacy, filling Mussolini also with bitterness towards his allies. Defeats in the end of that year came as a shock, lowering morale and causing internal unrest, rumours spread through the cities of great victories, only being shattered to increase the uncertainty. The bad state of the Italian army became more apparent by the beginning of 1941. Many young officers had received no training in basic military tactics, while the comparatively easier life in British capture lead to surrender becoming commonplace among the troops. Hitler then installed German military units throughout the major Italian cities, creating an atmosphere of unrest and distrust. The behaviour of these troops increased the anti-German sentiment that was sweeping the country with reports of drunken soldiers ransacking Italian houses.
This apparent inadequacy of the Italian people served to fuel a bitterness against them in Mussolini. Desperate for a nation of warriors he resented the middleclass resolving a war to break the “well-to do, who are the worst type of Italians.” In order to impress on the nation the seriousness of the war, Mussolini ordered an increase in the already high bread rations except for heavy labourers, in a move that appeared to the Italians as the “white bolshevism of Mussolini”. Upon whims he would introduce new sanctions and laws upon the country, deciding for example that New Year’s Day would cease to be a public holiday as, being the celebration of Christ’s Circumcision, it was no more than “the celebration of a Hebrew right, which the Church itself has abolished.”(Ciano’s diaries dec2 1940 pg312). When the bombing of Naples by the allies started, he again ordered fake air-raids in Rome, every time one occurred in Naples, to make the situation more dramatic. As the situation in Sicily grew worse, with the threat of Allied invasion, Mussolini ordered the removal of all civil servants from the island, provoking outrage among the civilians remaining there.
Food shortages became critical, provoking small, housewife’s protests in the provinces. In 1942 bread rations were halved and grain supplies were falling short, opening up new opportunities for what became a thriving black market prompting high inflation. The effects of these bombings, rationing, high prices and loss of faith in both the leader and the regime, resulted in the revival of active anti-fascist organisations and March of 1943 saw the first workers strikes there had been in Italy for nearly 20 years. The internal situation was now as critical for the fascist regime as the military fighting fronts and it was becoming increasingly clear that the Party, and more so Mussolini, was becoming less able to carry the nation through. As the grumbling among the populace became rife Mussolini, feeling isolated, started taking action. He dismissed several of his closest aids – those who had advised him against the war and displayed discontent with the Nazi regime, among which was Ciano. This move left him separated from the few men who would have remained by his side at all costs, men vital to him, especially as by this point Mussolini’s health was failing.
Such an increase in discontent among the masses in Italy prompted the Fascist Party leaders that something must be done. The king, Victor Emmanuel had never been keen on Mussolini and was anti-German, sentiments shared by his household and the Italian Court. With the Allied landings in Sicily and an invasion of the mainland imminent, and hesitation on his part ended and Mussolini’s deposition and subsequent arrest were arranged. On 25 July 1943 the Italian Grand Council met and a motion was proposed that suggested a loss of faith in the dictatorial regime. Passed by a high margin, including Ciano, Mussolini was informed that he no longer held power and his successor was named, a movement that provoked rejoicing throughout the nation.
It is clear that Fascism was a system of government that was tolerated by the Italian people, but not one that was embraced by them. Its principles were contrary to Italy and her ways, demonstrated most clearly by her reluctance to fight, and her objection to extreme and unnecessary violence. As Mussolini’s regime developed the characteristics of the Nazi doctrines of Italy, the people showed themselves unhappy and that they would not give their support to such a dictatorship. The fighting of wars that brought nothing but suffering and poverty to the country, and the use of these wars to punish as much as possible a people with whom Mussolini was now embittered with finally destroyed the loyalty that had been installed through repetition into the nation, so that by the time of Mussolini’s fall, and the subsequent collapse of the Fascist Party, there was no one to voice any disappointment, or indeed those who did remained for the most part silent.
