ABSTRACT
Mussolini arrived in Rome at 10.50 a.m. on 30 October. ‘In a few hours’, he announced, ‘the nation will have not just an administration; it will have a government.’ 1 Twenty-five minutes later he was with the King. ‘Your Majesty,’ he told him, T bring you the Italy of Vittorio Veneto.’ He worked fast. By the evening of the 31st the cabinet was complete. It was a broad-based coalition in which the extreme right predominated. Like Giolitti in his prime, Mussolini chose his ministers as individuals, not as party delegates. No one of those whom he invited declined or laid down conditions. 2 Mussolini himself took the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Interior. The service ministries were given to Diaz and Thaon di Revel and the philosopher Giovanni Gentile became Minister of Education. Besides these the cabinet included one nationalist (Federzoni), two right-wing Popolari, four assorted liberals and four fascists. 3
