The Grand Council of Fascism (Italian: Gran Consiglio del Fascismo) (aka: Fascist Grand
Council) was the main body of Mussolini's Fascist government in Italy.
A body which held and applied great power to control the institutions of government,
it was created as a party body in 1923 and became a state body on 9 December 1928.
The council usually met at the Palazzo Venezia, Rome, which was also the seat of head of the
Italian government.
== Members of the Council == Its members, selected among the party's gerarchi,
were as follows:
=== The Head of Government and Duce of Fascism ===
=== The Quadrumvirs ===
=== Parliament ===
==== President of the Senate ====
==== President of the Chamber of Deputies ====
=== Ministers ===
==== Agriculture and Forestry ====
==== Corporations ====
==== Finance ====
==== Foreign Affairs ====
==== Interior ====
==== Justice and Religious Affairs ====
==== Press and Propaganda ====
==== Public Education ====
=== President of the Royal Academy ===
=== President of the Special Court for the Defence of the State ===
=== *The Chief of Staff of the MVSN ===
=== Other Posts === The Presidents of the Corporations; Industrialists,
Agriculture Workers, Industrial Workers, and Farmers.
The Nobel Physics laureate inventor-technologist Guglielmo Marconi was the President of the
Academy of Italy, making him a council member.
The Secretary of the National Fascist Party, who was also the secretary of the Council.
Various people chosen by Mussolini himself, who each held appointments of three-year durations.
== Powers of the Council ==
Essentially, the council held these powers:
The power to elect the Fascist Party deputies, the nomination for the Party Secretary and
other party leaders, the approval of the party statutes and the power regarding the party's
policy.
The power to elect the Crown's line of succession including the choice of the heir to the throne,
the right of the crown, the power to choose possible successors to the Prime Minister,
the power to choose the function and membership of the Grand Council, the Senate, the Chamber
of Deputies (later the Chamber of Fasci and Corporations), the power to decide the rights
and powers of the Prime Minister, international Treaties, and foreign affairs.The Grand Council
meetings were convened by the Prime Minister himself, and all decrees and laws could only
be legalized after receiving his approval.
In contrast to the Führerprinzip government model in Nazi Germany, the Grand Council retained
the power to recommend that the King of Italy remove the Prime Minister from office.
As all the former governing institutions had been subordinated to the Fascist party, the
Council was the only check on Mussolini's power.
== Overthrow of Mussolini ==
The Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943.
Grand Council member Dino Grandi proposed a vote of no confidence in Mussolini as leader
of the Council and the party.
A vote was held on the night of 24–25 July 1943 and passed with 19 votes for, 8 against
and one abstention.
Among the 19 votes of no confidence were those of Mussolini's son-in-law Galeazzo Ciano,
who had been former minister of foreign affairs, and the influential marshal Emilio De Bono.
The following day King Victor Emmanuel met Mussolini and informed him that General Pietro
Badoglio would lead Italy, as Prime Minister.
Mussolini was arrested immediately after the meeting.In September 1943 Mussolini was freed
from imprisonment by the Germans and helped to regain power in northern Italy.
He had Ciano, De Bono and three others arrested and tried for treason on 8 January 1944 in
Verona.
They were executed by firing squad three days later