Mussolini and Balbo: reliance on a local ally and difficulty maintaining control

Mussolini and Balbo: reliance on a local ally and difficulty maintaining control describes a partnership that helped turn fascism from a weak local presence into a mass force, while exposing the limits of Mussolini’s command over its regional leaders. Mussolini gave Balbo authority to build in Ferrara and later sanctioned a major occupation there; Balbo, in turn, supplied organization, a local following, and a model of political action that Mussolini could use but could not reliably restrain.

Building a Local Base

Balbo’s rise unfolded amid a sharp crisis in Bologna and the surrounding countryside. In Bologna, revolutionary unions and socialist institutions shaped public life, while rural areas across Emilia-Romagna were dominated by socialist leagues. In Ferrara, those leagues had secured collective agreements that governed hiring and agricultural work. This landscape offered fascism both an enemy and an opportunity: the conflict over land and labor could be converted into a contest for local authority.

When Mussolini insisted that Leandro Arpinati take charge of the nearly moribund Bologna fascio, the proposed strategy was to organize civic-defense forces against strikes. In Ferrara, however, fascist growth became closely tied to the Agrarian Association. New sections formed after the Castello Estense massacre, and landowners, tenants, shopkeepers, and others provided support. Mussolini sent an inspector to assess the expansion and also tried to prevent the movement from appearing merely as an instrument of large landowners. A proposal to distribute uncultivated land to settlers who worked it, administered through a fascist land office, offered an alternative appeal to rural workers. Balbo, a former Alpine officer and committed patriot, was appointed editor of the local fascist paper, giving him a role in shaping that public presentation.

Mutual Use and Mass Appeal

The partnership became conspicuous during Mussolini’s visits to Bologna and Ferrara. In Bologna, a large fascist demonstration and a speech praising Gabriele D’Annunzio helped present the movement as a rising national force. The following day in Ferrara, Balbo received Mussolini before a crowd reported as twice as large. Local fascists asked to nominate Mussolini alongside the landowners, and figures from contrasting political worlds appeared together: Michele Bianchi and Umberto Pasella, formerly associated with the socialist labor movement, stood beside the Agrarian Association’s Vico Mantovani.

Balbo’s local position rested not only on ceremony. Through organized violence and the promise of land redistribution, he helped redirect support away from socialist peasant leagues and toward fascist unions; the league at San Bartolomeo in Bosco was the first to make that transfer. His authority was embodied in direct, forceful conduct, while Mussolini’s depended on turning such regional strength into national political leverage. At a rally in Ferrara, Mussolini privately asked Balbo whether the enormous crowd belonged to him. Balbo confirmed that it did. The exchange captured both the value and the difficulty of the alliance: Mussolini could address the people Balbo had gathered, but their local allegiance was Balbo’s resource.

The Pacification Dispute

That dependence became a point of conflict in August 1921, when Mussolini signed the Pacification Pact with socialist representatives and labor leaders. The agreement called for an end to violence and for offenders to be prosecuted. Fascists in Tuscany, Veneto, and Emilia rejected it almost immediately. Balbo argued publicly that the conflict with socialism could not be settled through sentiment or compromise, directly challenging Mussolini’s effort to present a more respectable fascism to liberal allies.

The break was not simply rhetorical. At an assembly in Bologna on August 16, six hundred fascist organizations from Emilia-Romagna renounced Mussolini’s leadership for as long as the pact stood and refused to lay down their weapons. Balbo and Dino Grandi then went to Gardone to offer D’Annunzio leadership of the movement. Mussolini’s position was consequently threatened by an alternative based on the regional squads and their rejection of restraint. D’Annunzio delayed answering and ultimately did not receive the visitors, leaving Balbo and Grandi without the leadership they had sought.

The dissidents’ challenge also produced a negotiated turn. At the fascist assembly later that year, the apparent confrontation between Mussolini and Grandi concealed a prior agreement: Mussolini would abandon the pacification approach in exchange for creating a Fascist Party. The delegates’ public arguments unfolded after that bargain had largely settled the direction of events. Mussolini joined the winning side, and the movement’s organization advanced, but the episode showed that his leadership depended on bargaining with men whose regional power he could not simply command.

Authorization and the Limits of Control

Balbo’s leverage was again evident in 1922. He and other regional leaders began organizing a national fascist militia, meeting secretly in Oneglia with General Gandolfo and Dino Perrone Compagni. In April, Balbo confronted Cesare Mori, prefect of Bologna, and used the prospect of a mass fascist mobilization to obtain the release of a local squad leader. The episode showed how Balbo could use the threat of collective action against state officials, rather than merely carry out orders within an established party structure.

Balbo then proposed occupying Ferrara during the spring period of unemployment, when tens of thousands of agricultural laborers lacked work. His plan was to compel the government to fund employment without imposing the cost on the landowners who supported the fascists. Mussolini listened and authorized it, while making clear that success would benefit fascism and failure would be Balbo’s responsibility. Balbo’s instructions for the operation prohibited beatings and alcohol, and the mobilization began at midnight on May 11. Thousands traveled from farms and villages by foot, bicycle, wagon, and canal barge. By morning, approximately fifty thousand impoverished laborers had entered Ferrara. Balbo’s men cut telephone lines, requisitioned school buildings for accommodation, and closed shops and businesses. The city was paralyzed, and the prefect sought a meeting with the commander of the mobilization.

The operation demonstrated the practical value of Mussolini’s local ally: Balbo could turn a political proposal into a coordinated movement of people at a scale that made the government respond. It also revealed the risk in granting him that latitude. Mussolini had authorized the plan but placed responsibility for its outcome on Balbo, preserving room to distance himself from failure while claiming the movement’s gains if it succeeded.

Regional Force and National Ambition

The tension sharpened during the 1922 march on Ravenna. After receiving a letter reporting deaths and unrest, Balbo ordered the Romagna squads to march there. While Mussolini was in Rome negotiating over entry into government, Balbo’s expedition continued despite a telegram from Bianchi directing him to stop the violence. Balbo threatened the police commissioner to obtain trucks, and the action proceeded for a day. The divergence was plain: Mussolini was pursuing a national political settlement, while Balbo treated terror and local coercion as necessary instruments of struggle. The expedition increased pressure on the government, but it also threatened Mussolini’s negotiations by making the movement’s violence difficult to contain.

The relationship therefore rested on an unresolved exchange. Mussolini needed Balbo’s organization, regional standing, and capacity for mobilization; Balbo needed the national movement and its leader’s authorization to turn local power into a broader political force. Yet Balbo’s independent following gave him room to defy the pacification policy, approach D’Annunzio as a rival leadership choice, and conduct operations while Mussolini bargained in Rome. Their partnership helped expand fascist power, but its recurring pattern was reliance without settled command: Mussolini could redirect or bargain with Balbo, not make his regional authority disappear.