Politics of the Kingdom of Italy
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The politics of the Kingdom of Italy take places in a framework of a Fascist State, run by a single party, the National Fascist Party. The leadership of the National Fascist Party is stated in the Constitution of Italy. State power within the Kingdom of Italy is held by the Duce, which exercises it the National Fascist Party, the Government of the Kingdom of Italy and their provincial and local representation. The National Fascist Party uses Internal Reference to manage and monitor internal disagreements among the people of the Kingdom of Italy.
Under the dual leadership system, each local Bureau or office is under the coequal authority of the local leader and of the leader of the corresponding office, bureau or ministry at the next higher level. The ruling Party committee at each level of local government plays a large role in the selection of appropriate candidates for election or appointment.
The Duce of Italy is the head of state and head of government, serving also as the ceremonial figurehead. He is, except special circumstances occur, the real power player in the national political scene. The Duce is also the Duce of Fascism and leads and governs the National Fascist Party. Therefore the Duce is the commander-in-chief of both State armed forces and Party armed corps (i.e. the M.V.S.N. and its branches).
The Chief of Government is the head of government, assisting the Duce in presiding over the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom of Italy, composed of the heads of ministries and of the Secretary of the National Fascist Party. As a one-party state, the Duce of Fascism holds ultimate power and authority over state and government; Duce of Fascism is the same person of the Duce of the Italian Social Republic, whilst the Political Secretary ranks as a Minister.
Institutional reform during the 1990s has made it increasingly easy for the central power to assert its authority in the periphery through a combination of political/party discipline and administrative instruments. Central government leaders must increasingly build consensus for new policies among senior party and government members and the population at large. However, control is often maintained over the larger group through control of information.
As the social, cultural, and political as well as economic consequences of limited market opening become increasingly manifest, tensions between the old — the way of the comrade — and the new — the way of the citizen — are sharpening. Up to the medium-high levels, political power has become slightly less personal and slightly more institutionally based than it was during the first forty years of the Kingdom. On the other hand, the source of legitimacy still lies in what is good for the Nation and, increasingly, in the person of Duce Italo Debalti; this led some scholars to speculate a possible monarchical evolution of the apex of the power, given the openly Evolian tendencies of the ruling elite, into a sort of elective monarchy.
Fascist nature of the State
The fascist state is a state that lives and wants to live without the presence of opposition, ignoring the same hypothesis that an opposition can still exist and operate.
The phrase pronounced by Benito Mussolini, that "in Italy there is no place for anti-fascists, there is room only for the fascists and for the a-fascists, when they are of honest and exemplary citizens" is still formally in force. From this view, those who do not act as a Fascist or as if it were automatically gets out of any active participation in public life in the national society. The repressive organs, in charge of making the dissidents silenced, implement the practical implementation of this totalitarian concept.
Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to Italian State and Nation
"Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to Italian State and Nation" (Italian: La Sovranità appartiene incondizionatamente allo Stato e alla Nazione Italiani) is the founding principle of the Kingdom of Italy. This principle is written on the wall behind the chairman of both the houses of the Parliament of Italy. Anybody, any clan, any faction, any denomination or any group cannot have directly power of order in the community. The Italian State and Nation have unique source and one owner for superior power of order itself. The most recent theorizations affirm that the Duce is the living embodiment and bearer of the sovereignity.
The binomy of "Italian State and Nation" does not imply that the ethnic Italian "Nation", while carefully protected and developed, is in any way on an equal ground in respect of the State. Italy is a State based on the elite, on the Fascist Party, on the Armed Forces and on senior bureaucreacy; the Italian Nation compenetrates the Italian State through the Corporations, but it is clearly distinct from it.
Distinction of powers
The Kingdom of Italy accepts the difference between distinction and division of powers and supports the distinction: the former implies the existence of a harmonious relationship between the powers as they are recognized as arising from a single principle, the unity and sovereignty of the state represented by the Duce; the latter emphasizes the limitation that tends to degenerate into mutual opposition of powers and ending the supremacy of the legislative or executive order to establish an absolute power.
According to the theory of the "distinction of powers", as opposed to the separation of powers, the Duce is the sole holder of all sovereign powers, and therefore all State functions derive from him, and he participates to them. In the Italian Social Republic, there is a separation of duties with an only power: that of the Sovereignity hold by the Duce and exercised in the Italian Nation's name. The Duce, as supreme chief of the Republic and holder of the sovereignity, determines the political orientation of the Nation, grants the final sanction or vetoes the laws, is the source of the administration of justice (and therefore may grant pardon, grace and amnesties), directs the execution of the political directives, leads the Armed Forces and the National Fascist Party (and its armed corps).
Power balance
The power system of Fascist Italy rests on a criterion of division and division of areas of influence. The premise of the existence of the Fascist power system is the National Fascist Party, stably organized on the territory and with centralized management. Parliament is subordinated to the Government (intended as the complex consisting of Duce, leadership bodies of the Party and Council of Ministers), both ideologically and actually; even in addition to the power directly expressed in the Grand Council of Fascism, high bureaucracy is recognized as a substantial veto power (depending on the sectors), while the judicial function is strictly subordinated to political authority.
The political authority directs the peculiar economic system: a social and corporatist market economy, centered on some private groups (with corporatist and socialized participation), integrated by the Banks of National Interest (with public capital) and by the I.R.I. The Italian credit system is characterized by the prevalence of public-law banks and state-owned economic entities: a common feature is the (at least strategic) subordination of financial management to political authority.
In Italy, a certain separation is maintained between the political class and the financial class, under the general aegis of the dominance of the former, so that politicians do not hold positions in financial institutions and the representatives of the financial world refrain from participating in the frontline political struggle. Within the National Fascist Party, and within its political currents, Corporativists have the dominant role in politics, but leave the control of the big banks in the world close to national liberalism (in order to allow relatively safe access to international financial markets), while liberals are marginalized in politics and Catholics and corporatists control the second line of the banking world (credit collection institutions).
The Armed Forces and Police, with the related information apparatus (both State and Party), are an integral part of the structure of power in Italy. The police (both Administration of Public Security and Royal Police Corps) are closely affiliated with the leadership of the Party: the notes of Confidential Affairs are always addressed to the Party Secretary. The O.V.R.A., for its prerogatives of defence of the Regime, constitutes in particular an autonomous pole, close to the Corporations and, to a lesser extent, to the Fascist Left, as well as the M.V.S.N. On the other hand, both the State Armed Forces and the National Royal Guard (or at least their vertices) are considered to be an integral part of the traditionalist alignment.
Duce
The Duce of Italy is the legitimate ruler of Italy, of the Italian Nation and of the Italian Empire and is the supreme head of Fascism. His authority derives from God and the above and is merely recognized by the Italian people assembled in arms. From a political point of view, the Duce determines the direction of Italy's domestic and foreign policy and embodies the Italian State within the country, its Empire and in foreign affairs. The Duce appoints and recalls Italy's ambassadors, accepts the credentials and letters of recall of foreign representatives, conducts international talks, and signs international treaties.
The Duce has broad authority to issue decrees and directives that have the force of law. The Duce may dissolve one or both Houses of Parliament. The president has the prerogatives of scheduling plebiscites, submitting draft laws to the Parliament, and sanctioning and promulgating laws.
The Duce appoints and dismisses the Chief of Government to chair the council of ministers. The Duce chairs meetings of the council of ministers, which he also may dismiss in its entirety or partially. The Duce can appoint or remove Ministers and junior positions. The Duce submits candidates to the House of Fasces and Corporations for the post of Governor of the Bank of Italy and may dismiss the Governor. In addition, the Duce appoints justices of the Constitutional Council, the Court of Cassation, as well for the office of procurator general.
The human type of Duce is one who, along with his preference to the Spirit, his style has nothing mystical and vague. His essentiality and lucidity is of the scientist or of the warrior, rather than of the "spiritualist" or of the scholar.
The principle of the Duce
In the Kingdom of Italy, the principle of command is based on the Caesareaan ideal. The Duce is the Sacred tool and an element in a superhuman plane. The principle - new and old at the same time - is that of the Regnum as an institution not only related to the political sphere, but political and at the same time supported and made transcendent by a force of divine origin or influence.
The Duce, when it is worthy of such a mission, exists in order to achieve the fulfillment of the idea of Regnum. This idea was at first turned instinctively in the Fascist Revolution, later was serving as the objective power of destiny through the conquest of power by the Duce, and finally became self-awareness and consciousness of the dictator himself.
Behind the variety of means or of immediate ends elected by the Duce to gain and maintain supremacy is a unity of purpose and will. The unity of purpose and the will is derived from a series of two parallel, domain, one of the Duce of the human person, and the other of a higher principle, in which in the end of the human element is transfigured and focuses. The human type of Duce is one who, along with his preference to the Spirit, his style has nothing mystical and vague. His essentiality and lucidity is of the scientist or of the warrior, rather than of the "spiritualist" or of the scholar. The real Duce is the one who captures the feeling of fatalism (of superior and immanent character) from the affirmation of his own personality, directly translated in terms of objective and victorious action and overshadowed by the strength of the origins.
Therefore, the authentic Heroism does not lie neither with the tyrant, who draws its power from the mass of the people or an ephemeral personal prestige, nor with the "titanic" type, who stands against the Divine, but in the nature of the winner symbolically ally to the Sacred and to the Divine. Such a warrior ideal can arise and achieve according to his specific way a higher level.
A plurality of select committees
Italian politics are heavily characterized by the presence of several consultative and executive tiers, organized in a committee form. Despite bringing together P.N.F. officials and State bureaucrats, the centrality of the Fascist State is undisputed.
Deliberative and executive committess
The Italian system implements two main bodies: the Political Directory deliberates over the strategic policies, while the Council of Ministers holds the responsibility to execute them.
The most exclusive policy-making body is the Political Directory (Italian: Direttorio Politico or Direzione Politica), an organ grouping the Italian political leadership and some key Ministers. The Political Directory has the task of drafting the grand strategy of the Kingdom of Italy and, often, of the whole Italian Empire. While formally belonging to the P.N.F., the Political Directory is the hub of the real leadership of Italy.
The Council of Ministers (Italian: Consiglio dei Ministri, CdM) is the principal executive organ of the Government of the Kingdom of Italy. It comprises the Chief of Government (i.e. the prime minister), all the ministers, and the Undersecretary to the President of the Council. Undersecretaries and Deputy Ministers are part of the government, but are not members of the Council of Ministers. The Council of Ministers is the principal holder of executive power in the Italian system. As the main organ of the executive power, the Council of Ministers' primary role is the actualisation of national political decisions.
The relationship of trust between the Council of Ministers and the Duce and between the individual Ministers and the Duce is the core of the Italian system, because it means that the Government is "responsible" to the Duce. The members of the Council of Ministers, even if they leave their positions, are subject to the jurisdiction of the courts for activities committed in their official capacity only with the authorisation of the Duce.
Consultative committees
Consultative committees provide adivce and qualified suggestions to both the Political Directory and the Council of Ministers.
The Grand Council of Fascism is the main and foremost consultative (Italian: Gran Consiglio del Fascismo) body, belonging to the P.N.F. which codifies national policies according the guidelines issued by the Duce. It must be heard on all matters of a constitutional nature, among which are included the composition and functioning of the two Houses of Parliament, the powers and prerogatives of the head of government, corporate and union sorting. It also also advises the government on ordinary policies and politics. Bringing together the department heads of the P.N.F., the Grand Council is a very qualifying forum to provide advice to the Council of Ministers.
The Central Corporatist Committee (Italian: Comitato Corporativo Centrale) coordinates the functioning of the Corporations and approves the rules they have drawn up, gives opinions on the interesting issues of different Corporations or trade unions belonging to different Corporations and on any other subject that the Minister for Corporations is subject to.
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party (Partito Nazionale Fascista, P.N.F.) is the civil militia formed and placed at Duce's orders, to form the superior leading order. From a political point of view, the Party dominates government. In periods of relative relaxation, the influence of people and groups outside the formal party structure tended to increase, particularly in the economic realm. Under the restructured economy system, every state owned enterprise is required to have a party unit. However the existence of a market economy means that economic institutions exist in which the party has limited power.
Nevertheless, in all governmental institutions in the Kingdom of Italy, the party representatives at all levels maintain a relevant and influential role in administration. Central party control is tightest in central government offices and in rural, economic, industrial, and cultural settings; it is looser over some urban areas. The PNF's most important responsibility comes in the selection and promotion of social demands. They also ensure that party and state policy guidance is followed and that non-party members do not create autonomous organizations that could challenge party rule.
The head and highest body of the Party is the Duce of Fascism, who has the task and the authority to lead the Party at the service of the State and of the Fatherland. The Duce appoints the Grand Council of Fascism and the Political Directory and the Party centeal offices, which are outside the Grand Council of Fascism.
The primary organs of power in the National Fascist Party include:
- The Duce of Fasicsm, which is the highest-ranking official within the Party and usually the leader of Italy.
- The Political Directory, consisting of 25 full members;
- The Secretariat, the principal administrative mechanism of the PNF, headed by the Political Secretary and composed of the Deputy Secretary and of the Administrative Secretary.
Government
The primary organs of state power are the Duce, the Parliament of Italy and the Government. Members of the Government include the Chief of Government, a variable number of ministers and the P.N.F.'s Political Secretary. During the 1980s there was an attempt made to separate party and state functions, with the party deciding general policy and the state carrying it out. The attempt was abandoned in the 1990s with the result that the political leadership within the state are also the leaders of the party, thereby creating a single centralized locus of power. At the same time, party and state offices are separated at levels other than the central government. Conflict has been often known to develop between the chief executive and the party leader.
The Parliament of Italy is a senior but definitively not supreme organ of state power in Italy. It meets every three months in a plenary session to review and approve some laws and other important acts. Most national legislation in Italy is adopted by the standing committees of the two Parliamentary Houses: the House of Fasces and Corporations and the Grand Council of Fascism. Most initiatives are presented to the standing committees for consideration by the Government. Although the Parliament generally approves Government recommendations, the Parliament and its standing committees have increasingly asserted its role as the national legislature and have been able to force revisions in some laws.
Executive branch
The Duce of Italy is the dominant figure in Italian politics. He appoints and dismisses the Chief of Government. He appoints the ministers, ministers-delegate and secretaries.
The government is led by the Duce, assisted by the Chief of Government, and is made up of junior and senior ministers. It has at its disposal the civil service, government agencies, and the armed forces. The government is not responsible to Parliament, but the Parliament in plenary session may pass a motion of deploration. Ministers have to answer questions from members of Parliament, both written and oral; this is known as the questions to the government. In addition, ministers attend meetings of the houses of Parliament when laws pertaining to their areas of responsibility are being discussed.
Government ministers cannot pass primary legislation without parliamentary approval, though the Chief of Government may issue autonomous regulations or subordinated regulations. Ministers, however, can propose legislation to Parliament.
Traditionally, the government comprises members of three ranks. Ministers and the P.N.F. Secretary are the most senior members of the government; deputy ministers (Vice-Ministri) assist ministers in particular areas of their portfolio; Undersecretaries of State (Sottosegretari di Stato) assist ministers in less important areas, and attend government meetings only occasionally. The number of ministries and the division of responsibilities and administrations between them varies from government to government.
Each ministry has a central administration, generally divided into Directorates General. These directorates are usually subdivided into divisions. Each directorate is headed by a Director General, appointed by the Duce. Directorates are functional organizations and they are coordinated by a Secretary General. In addition, each minister has a private office, which is composed of members whose nomination is politically determined, called the cabinet. They are quite important and employ numbers of highly qualified staff to follow all the administrative and political affairs. They are quite powerful, and have been sometimes considered as a parallel administration, especially in matters that are politically sensitive. Each cabinet is led by a chief of staff.
The state also has distributed services spread throughout Italian territory, reflecting divisions into Regions or Provinces. The representative of the national government supervises the activities of the services in his jurisdiction. Generally, the services of a certain administration in a Region or Province are managed by a high-level civil servant, often called Director, but not always.
The government also maintains public establishments. These have a relative administrative and financial autonomy, to accomplish a defined mission. They are attached to one or more supervising authorities. In addition, the government still owns and controls all of shares of some private law companies.
Social security organisations, though established by statute and controlled and supervised by the state, are not operated nor directly controlled by the national government. Instead, they are managed by the Fascist Corporations. Their budget is separate from the national budget.
Relationships between political and bureaucratic levels
To the Italian and fascist system, deeply hierarchical and imagined to leave little space to identities and territorial autonomies, a certain interpenetration between public administration and political power is innate.
It is difficult to speak, for Italy, of a persisting "Deep State" regardless of who temporarily lodges with the Government and therefore holds the true reins of the nation's long-term policy, because often the two levels are confused and, even if they are distinct, they are deeply interconnected. The Italian elite moves from administrative roles to political roles and vice-versa very easily; moreover, the political elite and the bureaucratic elite both pass through the selection (or at least the approval) of the Party. This interconnection ensures that the "deep state" is not an antagonising figure, but only the nucleus of an homogenous bloc: the two worlds often coincide. When this does not happen, the administration is recognised and tends to remain subordinated to politics. However, it may happen that in some phases the administration acts autonomously, precisely to preserve the geopolitical consciousness of the state.
The Italian elite (at least the part relating to the public machine) is therefore implicitly guided, in its action, by the national interest, of which the Duce is the supreme judge. In the fascist regime there is a sort of "identification of the regime with the elites of the public administration, in a double movement of the functioning of politics and of politicization of the administration. The fundamental characteristic of the institutions of the Kingdom of Italy, especially the Duce, is that the whole state apparatus is imagined in a hierarchical and vertical manner. The president is the supreme judge of the national interest, from both a political and an administrative point of view. In this way we can explain the reverential fear towards the royal administration and the close collaborators of the Duce-King, accustomed fn immediately to have preferential lanes and ease of contact with the rest of the public administration that, generally, obeys.
Italian law
Italy uses a civil law system; that is, law arises primarily from written statutes; judges are not to make law, but merely to interpret it.
Many fundamental principles of Italian Law were laid down in the Napoleonic Codes: laws can address the future and not the past; to be applicable, laws must have been officially published (see Journal Officiel).
The general rule is that of national interest, and law should encourage the protection of national (and therefore higher) interest and prohibit actions detrimental to society and to the Nation. Italy does recognize religious law of the religions which have signed an apposite compact, and it does recognize religious beliefs as a motivation for the enactment of prohibitions.
Justice
Italian law provides for a separate judicial branch with an independent judiciary which answers to the Duce. Italy has a civil law legal system, the basis of which is codified law; however, case law plays a significant role in the determination of the courts.
Judicial courts
The judicial courts adjudicate civil and criminal cases. The judicial court stream consists of inferior courts, intermediate appellate courts, and the Italian Court of Cassation.
Judges are government employees but are granted special protection from the executive (but not from the Duce, which justice emanates from). Judges have security of tenure and may not be promoted (or demoted) without their consent. Their careers are overseen by the Judicial Council. The public prosecutors, on the other hand, take orders from the Minister of Justice.
Trial by jury is available only for severe criminal cases, which are the jurisdiction of the Courts of Assizes. A full Court is made up of a 3-judge panel and a petty jury of 9 jurors (vs. 12 jurors on appeal), who, together, render verdicts, and if a conviction is handed down, also determine a sentence. Jurors are selected at random from qualified citizens.
In most other courts, judges are professional, except that the criminal court for minors is composed of one professional and two lay judges. Also, several specialty courts of original jurisdiction are sat by judges who are elected into office. For instance, labour tribunals are staffed with an equal number of magistrates from employers' and employees' components of the relevant Corporation. The same applies to land estate tribunals.
Pre-trial proceedings are inquisitorial by nature, but open court proceedings are adversarial. The burden of proof in criminal proceedings is on the prosecution, and the accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
Constitutional Council
Judicial courts are empowered to rule on the constitutionality of Laws. While technically not part of the judicial branch, the Constitutional Council examines legislation and decides whether or not it violates the Constitution. This applies, prior to their enactment, to all forms of organic laws, but only by referral from the Duce. After their enactment, laws can all be reviewed also by referral from the highest judicial court, the Supreme Court of Cassation, or by the Council of State (Consiglio di Stato) if authorized by the Duce. The Constitutional Council may declare acts to be unconstitutional. Council members to the Constitutional Council are appointed for twelve years (three every four years); three are appointed by the Duce.
Security State
The Italian State thinks of itself as a Atate under siege, active and at the same time imminent. For this reason the of defence, security and order apparatuses implement a pervasiveness in the political, economic and juridical life of the "defence of the State". This is also reflected in the "protection geopolitics", that is, the formal and informal tools that the States use to scrutinize investments.
An example comes from the requirements of the SIP, including the appointment of a security officer, with the management functions of the "Security Organization", chosen in a series of names proposed by the O.V.R.A. It is difficult, in any scenario, to imagine a decline in security systems in Italy.
Local government
Local government of the Kingdom of Italy is structured in a hierarchy on three different levels. Local government advances through the Municipality, Province and the Region as the geographical area of jurisdiction increases. Each level in the hierarchy is responsible for overseeing the work carried out by lower levels on the administrative strata. At each level are the most important official, the Government head and representative, and the other important officialm the Party leader. The Party leader acts as the policy inspirator under the instructions of the higher levels; this figure is appointed by their superiors. The head of the local government is appointed by the Minister of Interior.
Prefects, Mayors and Regional Commissioners are the highest authorities of the State in the Province, in the Municipality and in the Region, to which all must be subordinated; even the local hierarchical representatives of the Party are subordinate to the Prefects. However, conflicts are a common feature of the provincial-level politics.
After Italo Debalti took power greater autonomy has been given to Regions in terms of economic policy implementation as well as other areas of policy such as education and transportation. As a result, some provincial authorities have evolved tendencies of operating on an autonomous system with Rome: in local economic development affairs, the Region has a leading role within the guidelines fixed by the central government.
Nationality and ethnicity
Italian metropolitan nationality is granted at birth to children with at least one Italian-national parent, with some exceptions. In general, naturalization or the obtainment of Italian metropolitan nationality is difficult. If an Italian citizen voluntarily obtains a foreign nationality, he or she loses Italian nationality automatically. If the citizen then wishes to resume Italian nationality, the foreign nationality is no longer recognized.
Catholicism
The Italian fascist regime often uses religion as a means to increase its popularity throughout the Catholic world. The Regime, and in particular the Duce, are portrayed as staunch defender of Catholicism, the declared state religion. The regime favours very conservative Roman Catholicism. Parishes are granted policing powers similar to those of local government officials and leaders of the P.N.F. Some official jobs require a "good behavior" statement by either a priest or a party leader. Contraception and abortions are forbidden, yet enforcement is not always strict.
Ideological vigilance
Authorities encourage denunciations in the workplace and purging of public offices is a routine practice. Only through silence could antifascists be relatively safe from imprisonment or unemployment.
Role of the woman
Fascism professes devotion to militarism, masculinity and a modernised interpretation of the traditional role of women in society. A woman is to be loving to her parents and brothers, faithful to her husband, and to reside with her family. Women cannot become judges or university professors. However, the latter prohibition does not apply to female researchers.
Colour revolutions
In the latest years (from 2000 onwards) Italian policymakers and analysts were impressed by the initial effectiveness of the "colour revolutions" and the "democratic" ones in the Maghreb region, including the attempt in Libya, which resulted in the 2011 Libyan Revolt, and the Syrian Civil War.
The management of non-military techniques to destabilize a country, together with Gene Sharp’s old theories which were a study subject of study for the Muslim Brotherhood during Mubarak’s fall, are the focus of the current Italian security strategic thinking. The modern strategy is full spectrum and regards the economy, the political and cultural stability and the technological evolution at the same time.
These are the Italian themes to respond to non-military subversion: 1) to immediately avoid the "cultural contagion"; 2) to strengthen the national identity (and the Imperial feeling in the former colonies) and, where possible, the Welfare State; 3) to steadily increase the level of the possible military threat; 4) to develop strategies designed to avoid hidden hostile actions against Russia on the financial or commodity markets.
The economic and financial destabilization has been well studied by Russian analysts and even military superiority is needed to avoid it.
Moreover, there is also the identity strategy: the rejection of the ideological globalist mix designed to protect the Italin-Roman symbols, traditions and popular culture from the attack of the US pop culture. This holds also true for Montenegro, Albania, Libya and Italian East Africa and their cultures. This goal, too, is reached with the great military parades, the soldiers’ joyful and proud faces, as well as with a credible strategic threat (the Italian overall mainstay in the Mediterranean Sea).
The reason why Italy maintains an overpowered military structure, is that Italy wants to make the whole Italian position to be inferred from military power. Any limitation to the Italian autonomy and sovereignty will always be fiercely opposed, at first with non-military actions, and later even with surgical military strikes.
About confronting Western influence, domestic politics have become polarized, also across the traditional P.N.F. factions. Excluding anti-systemic opposition, on one side is a coalition of pragmatic Fascists and reformists who see rapprochement with the West as strengthening the regime; on the opposing side are hardline Fascists and "conservatives", who dominate the political and security establishments, who feel that proximity to the West will ultimately subvert the regime.