Passi Romani

Abstract

Senior figures within the fascist hierarchy largely supported Mussolini’s Axis policy as it evolved during the course of late 1936 and into 1937. Voices from the past, like that of Fulvio Suvich, that had expressed strong disapproval for any Italian alignment with the Germans, had now fallen silent. Even Pietro Badoglio, an inveterate opponent of any alliance with Berlin, voiced no outward dissent as regards Mussolini’s policy. According to various OVRA informants Badoglio’s relations with senior party figures, including the Duce himself, were already very poor, and especially over the question of Italian intervention in Spain, of which the Marshal disapproved. He could not risk distancing himself still further from the regime’s oligarchy by opposing the nascent Axis partnership. Therefore Badoglio, too, remained silent.¹