Fascism’s vitality in the 21st century marks it as the most successful fighting faith from the 20th century. So, it is well to understand fascism’s founder, who 100 years ago
Mussolini and the rise of fascism How did an obscure magazine editor become an idol, and then a scandal, and then reassert his authority and rule for a further 15 years? Cannes, 1920. Quinto Navarra, servant to the Italian foreign minister, is approached by someone wanting an appointment with His Excellency. A journalist. Nobody special. Navarra asks for his name-card. Benito Mussolini. Rome, 1923. Navarra is now Mussolini’s valet. The latter has become somebody very special indeed. He is the prime minister. More – as he boasts to Navarra – he is an object of veneration, an idol. “If I slept all day, the Italians wouldn’t ask for anything more. All they need to know is that I exist.”