Coming Elections

King Vittorio Emanuele signed a decree dissolving the Parliament, thus breaking the perplexing silence which for some time has shrouded Italian politics (TIME, Dec. 24, et seq.). According to the Constitution the new Parliament must be convoked by the King within four months of the dissolution. The date for the elections has, therefore, been set for April 6 and the first meeting of the new Parliament for May 24, the latest date allowed by the Constitution. Particular interest is attached to the forthcoming elections, as under the new electoral law introduced by Premier Mussolini (TIME, May 28, et seq.), the Party obtaining a plurality of votes, not less than one quarter of the total number, will receive two-thirds of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies.

Fascisti. The political situation in respect to Party politics is complicated. The Fascisti are powerful, and as Nationalists they are popular--just how powerful and popular only the elections can prove. Their popularity is due to their having delivered Italy from Bolshevism and put her in a sounder financial, economic and political condition. Against this, however, is the fact that Fascist brutalities in killings, burnings, floggings have alienated a number of Italians. Popular Party. The so-called Popular Party is Catholic and is the most recent of all political parties in Italy. It came into existence in 1919, when Pope Benedict XV removed the ban on Catholic political activity, and it has ever since been a growing power in Italian politics. The Italian Catholics, with the full approval of the Vatican, stood for land reform, universal suffrage, proportionate representation, Catholic education; and Fascismo, in order to secure clerical support, adopted most of the Popular program. Under these circumstances the policy of the Catholic or Popular Party in the coming election is likely to be pro Fascismo rather than against it.

Constitutionalists. The Constitutional Party is generally regarded as liberal, but is in effect conservative. Like all other parties, it has suffered from the Fascist encroachment upon its policies. Signori Giolitti and Nitti are expected to be the most prominent leaders, but whether they will split or unite the Party cannot be determined until after the Fascist Grand Council has met in Rome to give voice to the Fascist policy, following which the Constitutionalists will state their platform. Most of the people who have been shocked at the Fascisti brutalities have fallen back on the Constitutionalists.

Socialists. That the Socialists nearly sacrificed the fruits of the Italian victory of Vittorio Veneto* by embracing and embroiling the country in Bolshevism has been the main fact which both Fascismo and Constitutionalism have impressed upon the country. On account of having used considerable violence when they seized power in some provinces after the War, and because the new electoral law will operate against them, Socialism is considered a dead letter in Italy.

*Vittorio Veneto, last battle of 1918 which ended the War with Austria-Hungary.