Democracy’s immorality
From the outset, the Catalan writer was struck by the surge of inflation, the spread of poverty, and the social strains that accompanied the fascist coup. He sometimes compared the degradation he witnessed with conditions he had observed in Spain. Among the few Spanish journalists who were on the ground during the coup, he stood out for his willingness to report in real time. He even found himself in public disputes with Ramiro de Maeztu, the author of a piece that argued for a superficial fascism, while Pla defended a purer form of pacifism and criticized the perceived immorality of democracy. The iron grip of fascism began to suppress criticism, a development Pla characterized as aligning with a militaristic impulse that Spaniards had long associated with national pride.
In Pla’s view, the fascist protest industry allowed him to observe the different layers inside the movement. He noted squads that moved toward Rome included many countryside supporters, while others stayed behind in cities like Florence. He described how students and cultured professionals quietly remained away from the front lines of action. Pla’s reporting reflected a broader skepticism about a movement that claimed to defend the nation while drawing power from a small circle that controlled the narrative and the parliamentary scene alike.
Based on his observations, Pla defined fascism as a protective, nationalist plutocracy that captured the allegiance of the masses who followed the party, despite its limited parliamentary footprint. He observed early practical shifts during the war years when Mussolini shifted toward interventionism and militarism, eventually proclaiming a new form of socialism while distancing himself from earlier socialist roots. The war’s end helped catalyze a political project born from those dissatisfied with the peace settlement, and Pla traced how this project evolved into a regime that claimed both unity and strength while concentrating power in fewer hands.
Italy of the Lock
The dynamics Pla described became most evident in central Italian cities such as Perugia and Florence, and in Emilia Romagna centers like Ferrara and Bologna. These places, identified by Pla as key nodes in the early expansion of fascism, experienced rapid growth after a pivotal volley of violence in December 1920, when the movement began to spread from its urban epicenters to the broader countryside and beyond. The Catalan observer noted how the regime leveraged agricultural associations and other social organizations to extend its reach even among non-fascist groups, a strategy that helped the movement consolidate control once the March on Rome concluded.
Pla quoted a fascist interlocutor who described a route from Florence to Bologna aboard a fascist train, illustrating how the movement’s momentum traveled through transport corridors and provincial networks. This pattern underscored the way a dictatorship could stage a dominant display of power after seizing national leadership. The narrative Pla captured also highlighted the consequences for opponents, including the social humiliations and forced humiliations that accompanied the new order, especially for those aligned with socialist and popular parties who faced coercive intimidation under the new regime. In Italy, governance came to resemble a tightly controlled bar scene where dissent was muted and the state asserted its presence with overwhelming force.