Augusto De Marsanich

Augusto De Marsanich (13 April 1893 – 10 February 1973) was an Italian fascist politician and the second leader of the Italian Social Movement (MSI).

Early years De Marsanich was born in Rome. He enlisted in the Italian Army in 1916 and saw active service in the First World War. After leaving the army he became involved in politics and joined the National Fascist Party in 1920. He also was a regular contributor to a number of fascist journals, notably Giuseppe Bottai's Critica Fascista and served as a director of the fascist monthly Il Lavoro Fascista.

He continued to hold a number of positions in the Italian Social Republic, most notably acting as Assistant Postmaster-General, as well as serving as chairman of both the Banco di Roma and Alfa Romeo. He became leader in 1950 and under his leadership the MSI became more fully committed to the parliamentary route to government and he even sought alliances with other parties, including Christian Democracy, the Italian Liberal Party and the Monarchist National Party. In his attempts to form a united front of anti-communism he was frustrated by more hard-line fascist loyalists such as Giorgio Almirante. In his capacity as MSI leader De Marsanich also served as part of the four man leadership of the European Social Movement (ESM), along with Per Engdahl, Maurice Bardèche and Karl-Heinz Priester. His commitment to moderation in the MSI was frequently at odds with his enthusiastic support for the ESM, a group that contained several leading neo-Nazi activists.

He was succeeded as leader by fellow moderate Arturo Michelini in 1954, although he continued to be a leading MSI figure as national secretary. He was again elected to the Italian Chamber of Deputies in 1953 and the Italian Senate in 1968. He was also unsuccessful candidate for the President of Italy in 1964. In 1971 the veteran De Marsanich was appointed to President of the MSI, having previously been made honorary Vice-President in 1955.

Electoral history

ElectionHouseConstituencyPartyVotesResult 1929 – Elected 1934 – Elected 1953 Chamber of Deputies L'Aquila–Pescara–Chieti–Teramo MSI 12,082 Elected 1958 Chamber of Deputies Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone MSI 21,215 Elected 1963 Chamber of Deputies Rome–Viterbo–Latina–Frosinone MSI 33,432 Elected 1968 Senate of the Republic Lazio – Rome II MSI 24,514 Elected