(Published in Il Popolo d'Italia, July 29, 1922)
By Benito Mussolini
The Ministry of the Left is definitively over. The Hon. Bonomi, who wanted to form it, did not succeed in his ungrateful endeavours, despite the fraternal help of the Hon. Turati, but above all the Popular Party has renounced you with their latest order of the day, in which many openings appeared because the liberal-nationalist Right passes you by.
The Popular Party realized that it was necessary not to push things to the extreme and that only by wanting to engage in ugly irony could one possibly think of forming a ministry of pacification, which began by declaring war on a not negligible part of the Parliament, not to mention the vast majority of the country. Since the Leftist ministry has been liquidated and the Nittian social-collaborationist attempt has been dismissed, it is time to recognize that these words of "Left" and "Right" no longer have any concrete meaning, or at least have a very different meaning than the pre-war one.
Perhaps some might want to say that the Right is reactionary and the Left is revolutionary? Nothing could be more absurd. Fascism, which sits on the Right—although in fact we could be placed at the top of the Centre—is reactionary towards Socialism, which, even if it sits on the Left, is today typically bourgeois, one might even say conservative and reactionary. But Fascism, which sits on the Right, and is reactionary towards Socialism, is on the other hand revolutionary towards liberalism and the Liberal State, since Fascism wants to reduce the State to its necessary functions, wants to revive its hierarchies and at the same time denies the methods of liberal government.
Does this mean that the bourgeoisie is on the Right and the proletariat on the Left? Let's set aside for a moment the fact that the terms "bourgeoisie" and "proletariat" do not correspond to any concrete social reality; the fact is that the real bourgeois—namely those who are bourgeois in their habits, in their temperament, and with their wallets—all stand among the democracies, including those of the extreme Left. Is it not significant, for example, that yesterday Max Bondi and Luzzatto both belonged to social democracy, i.e. to reformist socialism? After that small episode of human history known as the World War, the old mental and political positions have been altered and overturned. It is not a paradox today to say that revolutionaries can be on the Right and reactionaries can be on the Left.
In short, these words do not have a fixed and immutable meaning: they have variables and are conditioned by the circumstances of time, place and spirit. We Fascists completely ignore these empty terms and above all despise those who are terrified by these words. These frightened fools abound especially in Parliament. That's why no ministry has been formed yet. That's why, almost certainly, there will be no government.
