Every Day Is Special: July 28 - Anniversary of the Fall of Fascism in San Marino

July 28 - Anniversary of the Fall of Fascism in San Marino

Posted on July 28, 2018

The world seems to be dabbling in the ideas of fascism again - and that's scary. What's appealing about these authoritarian ideas? Why doesn't everybody, all the time, yearn for individual rights rather than turning to a leader who promises simple "solutions" and "strong" "leaders"?

"I'm the one who can solve your problems; elect me - and then sit back and let me rule!"

Of course, being a citizen in a democracy in which people are free to debate issues, criticize the government, challenge officials, and vote people and political parties out of office - well, being an active and knowledgeable citizen can be a lot of work. So many people! So many opinions! There can be a lot of arguments, disagreements, even protests. Democracy can be noisy and messy...and I suppose that having a dictator could be seen as simpler and quieter!

But...squelchingly un-free!

Way back in 1922, a man from the tiny European nation of San Marino founded the Sammarinese Fascist Party. The man, who was named Giuliano Gozi, modeled the party on the fascist party in Italy - you know, the one that took fascist dictator and Hitler-wanna-be Benito Mussolini to the top! (It's not surprising that Gozi was influenced by Italy, since San Marino is entirely surrounded by the much larger nation!

Soon after he founded the fascist party, Gozi was elected Captain Regent of San Marino.

Gozi was rich. His family was noble. He had loads of ties to both military and police - and so he was able to take way more control than San Marino's constitution allows. For example, he worked to ban all other political parties, and it wasn't a surprise that he ended up winning re-election.

His position of Captain Regent is up for election every six months - and yet Gozi won bunches and bunches of re-elections (against zero competitors) and ended up ruling for 20 years!

Of course, the people of Europe and the world fought against fascism in World War II, and the Sammarinese people - even though the nation was officially neutral in the war - began to protest against Gozi and his government.

When Mussolini was finally removed from power in 1945 - and Hitler and the Nazis were facing defeat - and Mussolini was arrested, executed by firing squad, and displayed to the public to confirm that the monster was truly dead - well, when all of that happened, Gozi's power ended, and he retired from politics.

Now San Marino celebrates the anniversary of the end of fascism with an actual holiday!

San Marino is the nation with the oldest surviving-and-still-used constitution; it's a multi-party democracy with a parliament. Hopefully, fascism isn't stirring its ugly head there again - but it is in Italy, I've read.

Let's all educate ourselves about fascism, learn to recognize fascist tactics and ideas, and stand firmly against it. We must learn from the past and avoid our grandparents' and great grandparents' and great-great grandparents' mistakes!!

Even though fascism is starting to rumble again, even
in Europe, the good news is that there seem to be more
people standing against it that for it.

Let's keep it that way!!!!