Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right
Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right Unione Integrata del Diritto Tradizionale | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Il Duce | Ottaviano Castello (1902-1936) Enzo Sanmartino (1936) |
| Founded | April 22, 1905 |
| Dissolved | March 18, 1936 |
| Merger of | Conservative Party, Front for the Defence of Marirana |
| Headquarters | Aquinas, Marirana |
| Ideology | Integralism Authoritarianism Personalism Christian corporatism Integral nationalism National Catholicism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Religion | Solarian Catholicism |
| Colours | Blue |
| Slogan | Dio, Patria, Tradizione ("God, Fatherland, Tradition") |
| Party flag | |
| File:Flag of the UIdDT.png | |
The Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right (Caeseni: Unione Integrata del Diritto Tradizionale) was a far-right political party that ruled Marirana as a single-party state from 1905 until its dissolution in 1936 following the conclusion of the Great War. The organisation was colloquially known as the Unione by its supporters.
Following a sustained period of leftist agitation the preceding year in Red December a coalition of conservatives and more radical nationalist socialists united behind the figure of Ottaviano Castello, a military commander who had suppressed trade union activity in Ritaldi during Red December, as the Conservative candidate in the 1905 election. The military ensured Castello won the election, with Castello subsequently creating the Unione and transforming Marirana into a right-wing one-party military dictatorship. The regime was Catholic, corporatist and reactionary with Castello launching the White Terror imprisoning opponents of the regime, predominantly leftists and trade union activists. Castello also launched an ethnic cleansing towards the indigenous population and implemented policies of economic autarky.
The regime was revanchist towards Roeselle, seeing territory lost in the Roessen-Mariranan War as that that needed to be retaken. It also saw the protestant Federation of Asteria as hostile to the Mariranan nation and as such drew Marirana away from the Federation's sphere of influence, becoming close to Gaullica and Satucin. At the start of the Great War Castello invaded the Federation and Roeselle with Gaullican support, only surrendering in 1936. The Unione was subsequently banned with the Mariranan constitution explicitly banning its re-foundation.
History
Historical context
Since independence in 1797, Mariranan politics had been divided between two differing factions - conservatives and liberals. Conservatives supported close ties with the Solarian Catholic Church and were hostile to democracy and capitalism, instead supporting the colonial feudalism that had dominated Mariranan society between the 1400-1800's. During the period of the Centralist Republic the Conservative Party dominated Mariranan politics under the rule of strongman president Italo Agostino Saragat. However the death of Saragat in 1870 saw the conservative faction split between the reactionaries and the pragmatists, leading to a coup by liberal forces in 1884. Reactionaries supported the return to authoritarian rule whilst pragmatists essentially accepted the liberal institutions created by the new liberal government who implemented a Federative Republic. The pragmatists triumphed in 1885 when their candidate, Luigi Balsamo was elected President with Balsamo attempting to drive out Asterian cocoa companies from the country - the resultant "Coffee War" led to the ouster of Balsamo and the retention of liberal rule, with the conservatives being further marginalised.
By the late 1890's, the political consensus of the 1880's - support for classical liberalism, respect for the church whilst maintaining a policy of secularism and a cautious approach to reform - had broken down due to the rise of left wing groups such as the Republican Left and National Confederation of Syndicalist Trade Unions. The rise of left wing groups was accompanied by more strikes for better working conditions and leftist agitation for a socialist revolution, with the right being alarmed by these developments.
In December 1904 tensions between left wing and right wing groups became so great that in the city of Santa Maria there was massive strikes, direct actions and rioting as left wing groups attempted to start a revolution in a period known as Red December. Liberal President Giovanni Lombardi declared a state of emergency and ruled by decree, removing all provincial premiers from their posts and appointing military officers instead whom he tasked with dealing with the leftists. In the Ritaldi province, which had some of the most violent agitation, Lombardi appointed young military officer Ottaviano Castello to deal with the leftists. Castello declared martial law, armed right-wing paramilitaries - predominantly the Front for the Defence of Marirana led by Aldo Malfatti - and subsequently murdered leftists en masse. Castello's brutal tactics were effective as the situation in Ritaldi stabilised much earlier than other provinces. Castello's decisive action and vocal support for right-wing causes made him a hero amongst the right.
1905 election
Red December polarised Mariranan society which had previously supported the status quo of classical liberalism. With elections looming in 1905, many on the right became worried the left-wing Republican Left and the Liberals would have a better chance of winning the presidency than right-wing parties. The de facto leader of the reactionary faction of the conservatives, Franco Rognoni, approached former conservative President Luigi Balsamo on the possibility on a joint ticket to prevent the left from coming to power, but Balsamo refused due to his suspicion that the reactionaries would undermine the democratic process. There was also rumours the leader of the FDM, Aldo Malfatti, was to run for the presidency on a platform explicitly rejecting liberal democracy and creating an authoritarian militarised state which threatened to further split the right-wing vote.
It was then suggested that rather than draw a candidate from the Conservatives, the party would jointly nominate a single candidate to unite the right. Castello, with his charisma, background in suppressing the left, close links with the FDM and stringent support for right-wing causes such as support for the church and anti-leftism, was considered the obvious candidate. Castello soon outlined his political priorities - hostility to liberalism and leftism, a call for national rebirth, strong support for the Church, social welfare to appeal to the poor and working classes and territorial expansion.
The 1905 election saw two candidates run for the presidency - Castello, supported by the Conservatives and Ettore Carozza of the Liberal party. The Conservatives courted support from several sections of society - landowners who traditionally voted for the Conservatives, the clergy who retained significant political and social influence and had supported the CRM, the right-wing nationalist middle class who supported or were members of the FMD and the military who supported Castello all were amongst the sections of society that supported the Unione.
The unity of the right was made more apparent with the disunity of left-liberal forces. The Liberals were split over Carozza's candidacy and were still weakened by allegations of corruption and being seen as the prime defenders of the "aristocratic republic". Sections of the conservatives opposed to dictatorship were to hostile to the liberal-left to deviate from the party line which was to support Castello.
During the election there was an unprecedented amount of political violence between Castello's and Carozza's supporters. Violence peaked in Santa Maria on the 7th March 1905 between members of the FMD and left-wing paramilitary groups with the leader of the FMD, Malfatti, being killed in the violence. Although not clear at the time, Malfatti's death was crucial for removing a potential rival to Castello. Malfatti was replaced as head of the FMD by Enzo Sanmartino, who subsequently began a purge of the FMD's leadership reducing it from an independent organisation to being' loyal to Castello alone.
The election saw Castello receive a majority of the popular vote, but due to the electoral process Carozza won a majority of the electoral vote. However the military which overwhelmingly supported Castello soon placed great pressure on the electoral college to elect Castello president instead on the grounds Carozza was an agent of the Republican Left. Several right-wing members of the Liberal party opposed to a Carozza presidency perceived that Castello would be easy to control, resulting in the electoral college to narrowly vote for Castello to become president.
Consolidation of power
As Castello was supported by a loose heterogeneous coalition of right-wing groups who had differing aims, Castello's victory prompted these groups to start jockeying for power. Right-wing liberals and moderate conservatives wished to restore a business friendly, anti-socialist government, whilst more reactionary elements of the Conservatives aimed for a monarchical restoration or the retention of presidential dictatorship. The FDM wanted a radical national syndicalist state, the clergy a theocracy and the armed forces a military dictatorship. All groups saw Castello as a pawn who would be easy to manipulate.
Castello, aware of his precarious position and lack of parliamentary support, initially appointed a cabinet made to represent the various different factions, with the leader of the reactionaries Franco Rognoni and influential right-wing activist Alcidi Prodi being appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Finances respectively. Crucially however he was able to engineer the positions of Minister of Defence and Minister of the Interior - who controlled the army and the police respectively - to his allies within the army, Amedeo de Rossi and Sanmartino. Sanmartino oversaw the creation of the Bureau for the Defence of the Fatherland (Ufficio per la Difesa della Patria, commonly known as the Uditria), a police unit ostensibly charged with preventing leftist agitation but more broadly used to suppress enemies of the new regime being made up of members of the FMD. As one of his first moves Castello passed an act of parliament that allowed him to reform the judiciary - by April 1905 the constitutional court was replaced with appointees of Castello's.
On the 25th April 1905 Castello on the pretence that a second Red December was imminent banned the NCSTU and had leftists around the country arrested. In response to his action, a faction of the Conservatives led by Balsamo concerned that Castello was abandoning democracy started to move against the new president. As a result, Castello backed by the military forcibly dissolved parliament early and held an election under a new electoral law, scheduled for the 18rd June 1902. Castello subsequently dissolved the Conservative Party, merging it with the FMD to form the Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right, which would serve as his own personal platform.
The "anti-Castello" faction of the Unione was painted to be accomplices of the Republican Left alongside left-wing Liberals. Castello's control of the police led the vote to be neither free nor fair as opposition candidates were beaten or assassinated and voting held in public. The Unione won a supermajority in both the House of Senators and House of Councillors, with anti-Castello candidates being heavily defeated. Three days after the vote Balsamo reportedly committed suicide.
Following the election, Castello reshuffled his cabinet removing Prodi and demoting Rognoni to the position of Minister of Trade and Industry whilst stocking senior leadership positions with military officers. Prodi's demotion saw a ripple of discontent amongst members of the FDM, but the purgings of the organisation unleashed by Sanmartimo and subsequent merging into the Uditria made the remnants of the organisation impotent. The business community whilst dismayed with the demotion of Rognoni, seen as their ally, was at this point unable to put up effective opposition to the regime after threats of nationalisation. On the 30th July 1905 Castello officially dissolved the Second Free State and declared the Sotirian State of Marirana, a one-party state under the Unione with Castello now known as "Il Duce" (the leader). Castello officially enshrined Solarian Catholicism as the state religion and accommodated reactionary clergy into the regime, leading to the church to abandon support for monarchical restoration in favour of supporting Castello marginalising the monarchists, who were the last group within the Unione opposed to Castello. The rapid centralisation power in the hands of Castello and his allies backed by the military and Uditria meant that by July 1905 the weak institutions of the state were essentially merged with that of the party with Castello drawing his authority from his status as head of state, head of party and generalissimo of the army.
One-party state
With the one-party state enshrined in the constitution and his position unassailable, Castello began to use the Unione and the state apparatus to implement his policies. Following the creation of the one-party state the Charter of the Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right was written, which laid the political principles of the movement as being authoritarianism, political Catholicism, Christian corporatism and integral nationalism. Its membership - made up primarily of the middle class and white right-wing working class were hostile to liberal capitalism and leftism, leading to Castello to reject liberalism, communism, socialism and capitalism instead advocating for a third position. The Unione supported the territorial expansion of Marirana, leading Castello to embark on a policy of massive industrialisation and economic autarky.
With his political position secure the Unione under Castello launched the White Terror which saw 500,000 suspected communists and leftist agitators killed and over a million imprisoned in labour camps. The Unione saw Marirana as a Christian nation based in Euclean culture and as a result persecuted native cultures in Marirana. The majority of the killings and purging's were carried out by members of the Uditria and Unione activists. Censorship was also imposed as culture was re-orientated to praise the fascist regime.
In 1906 it was mandatory for all state officials to be members of the Unione. Progression through the state bureaucracy was dependent on ones ideological adherence and loyalty to the aims of the Unione - this led to a powerful body of apparatchiks dependent on the Unione for promotion through the state to hold immense power within the government. Activists within the Unione soon became powerful in society as opposition to the Unione was crushed by the Uditria.
In its early years, the Unione exhibited a rigid, dogmatic loyalty to Castello. This was partly due to the purges in the movement spearheaded by Sanmartino and the White Terror, but also due to a commonly held desire within the Unione to reverse the reforms made by the Second Free State, such as the secularisation of society and growth in leftist movements. There was also popular support for the regime's economic policies of autarky and military Keynesianism which were launched in 1906. Over time a cult of personality around Castello was launched, with Castello taking the title "Defender of the Faith", traditionally one reserved for monarchs. Castello's emulation of a monarch was noted at the time and led to protests by monarchists, although Castello ignored these.
Division soon manifested over two areas - economic and foreign policy. On economic policy, autarky had resulted in the state to reject food imports and foreign loans, leading to a famine between 1908-1913 in the countryside. The famine resulted in the deaths of thousands of peasants but as they were of predominantly of native descent the government ignored them. Despite the government's negligence and continued support for autarky, some members of the government such as Industrial Minister Salavatore Bossi to resign from the Unione after Castello rejected economically liberal policies that would overturn autarky. Despite reservations the business community continued to support autarky
More contentious was the division in foreign policy. Whilst the Unione was united in its opposition to Roeselle for revanchist reasons and Althira due to the regimes staunch anti-leftism it was more divided on its place in regards to the Federation of Asteria. Some such as Sanmartino supported a pragmatic approach, seeing Asteria as a partner against the leftist forces of Althira whilst other such as Minister of Foreign Affairs Alessandro Fico saw Asteria as part of a Jewish leftist conspiracy to subvert Marirana. The policy of autarky had seen Asterian businesses in Marirana nationalised by the state, but the Castello government attempted to cordial relations for the early part of the 1900's.
The rise of Fascist Gaullica in 1920 saw Marirana reorient to a decidedly pro-Gaullican foreign policy under the direction of Fico who had the support of Castello but faced opposition from Sanmartino. Castello and Fico met with colonial authorities in Satucin to discuss a Gaullican-Mariranan alliance that would serve as a counterweight to Asterian influence in the region. With the Unione itself there was widespread support for such an alliance with only pragmatists, led by Sanmartino, in the bureaucracy opposing it.
The Unione began at this time to heavily promote its territorial claims over Roeselle in territory that it had lost in the Roessen-Mariranan War in the 1820's. Marirana had claimed such territory since 1832, but it soon became the dominant theme in Mariranan propaganda as the movement towards war became inevitable. The regime long built on militarisation began to prepare for an eventual war with Roeselle and Asteria, with Castello stating that it was his "God given mission to launch a crusade against those [i.e Roeselle, Asteria] that seek to undermine the integrity of the Mariranan nation" at a Unione rally in 1926.
On the TBA of 1927 Castello declared war on Asteria and Roeselle alongside Satucin. During the war, the political influence of the Unione decreased as military figures - such as Brigadier General Costanzo D'Annunzio and head of the Uditria Sanmartino - increased as purely political figures such as Fico saw their influence decline. The Unione thus became an administrative body during the war losing the little ideological dynamism it had once retained - however, its activists were crucial in mobilising the population to support the war effort.
Downfall
The war turned for the worse for Marirana in TBA as large parts of the country became occupied by Allied forces. This resulted in the organisational collapse of the Unione, with the Uditria and military taking over its functions. In 1934 the Executive Bureau - the highest body in the Unione - dissolved itself alongside provincial branches as the organisation became moribund. In 1936 Castello fled Marirana with Sanmartino as deputy-leader taking office as Il Duce. Ten days after taking power Sanmartino signed a surrender with the Federation and Roeselle, ending the Great War in Marirana.
Following the surrender an occupation government under General Steven Watters dissolved the Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right and its associated bodies, with its assets being nationalised by the Mariranan state. In the Mariranan constitution of 1938 it is explicitly stated that it is illegal to re-found the Unione - this clause has remained in subsequent versions of the constitution.
Legacy
Although the Unione was banned in the post-war constitution, its political ideals have remained in the Mariranan political scene. Following the war many former members of the Unione formed the United Democratic Congress, a right-wing national conservative party that officially supported democracy, but drew many of its ideas from the same Integral Conservatism of Castello.
The United Democratic Congress was dissolved following the 1972 coup, but the new civic-military government openly admired the former Castello regime. In 1972 the regime created the Party of National Reconstruction which was based on the Unione. The fall of the civic-military regime saw the PNR reform into a neoconservative party. In 2010 the PRN officially merged into the United National Party, but hardliners formed the Liberty and Justice Party which has been accused of revering Castello-era imagery.
Ideology
The Integrated Union of the Traditionalist Right when first formed had no real coherent ideology aside from anti-socialist sentiments, containing within it classical liberals to proto-National Functionalists. The fast centralisation of power into the hands of Castello and his associates however led the Unione to support a specific set of policies that were deeply rooted in nationalism, political Catholicism and authoritarianism. Castello named the ideology of the Unione as "Integral Conservatism".
Much of the Unione's ideology was based on opposition to the liberal status quo that dominated Mariranan politics between 1885-1905. In particular, the Unione embraced the Church in the running of political affairs, ruled out the concept of democracy and called for the territorial expansion of Mariranan territory. The Unione also rejected socialist theory and other leftist movements, instead supporting a corporate state wherein the workers', business and the state cooperated together in corporations. The Unione's concept of Mariranan nationalism was narrow and insular, seeing Marirana as a Christian, white and conservative nation. As a result the Unione had contempt for native cultures and people's. In its propaganda the Unione supported traditional, feudal Marirana and was fundamentally a reactionary movement. However, the desire for massive militarisation led the Unione to pursue a policy of industrialisation ad as a result there was a degree of economic modernisation under Castello's rule.
Integralism
The Unione was inspired by the ideas of controversial Mariranan right-wing writer Benito Caracciolo, who promoted the idea of "integralism", which taught that the entire populace of a nation should submit their being to the nation-state, preferably one built around the personality of charismatic authority. To strengthen the commitment to the state other institutions that support it - such as the Church - should be part of this integral movement.
According to Integralism, in order submit to the state an authoritarian leader must rule with charismatic authority. Caracciolo stipulated the people will not submit to the state without the worship of a "son of God" of whom the individual can sacrifice their individuality to and serve unquestionably. Caracciolo lauded the fact that if the people were loyal "to the nation and the leader alone, than the nation is invincible". Caracciolo also however emphasised the organic nature of integralism and supported decentralisation and was militantly secular.
Integralism as practiced by the Castello government fused the anti-individualism and personalist authority advocated by Caracciolo with Catholic social teachings and tight centralisation. Castello called this tendency "Integral Conservatism", stressing the merging of integralist and conservative principles.
Nationalism
The Unione was officially a nationalist movement that supported a form of integral nationalism. In particular the Unione advocated for the geographical expansion of Marirana into land that had been lost to Roeselle in the Roessen-Mariranan war, seeing such land as "unredeemed" (Irredenta) and that it was Marirana's destiny to retake such land.
The Unione despite claiming heritage of the Oaexicun Empire promoted a form of culture that was heavily rooted in colonial traditions, seeing Mariranan nationalism as promoting a white, Christian and conservative nation. As such under the Unione much of the cultural heritage of native people's was destroyed as they were not seen as being Mariranan but as a relic of the country's "barbaric" past.
Christianity
Corporatism
Anti-leftism
Organisation
Il Duce
| No. | Name (Born–Died) |
Portrait | Term in Office | Positions held | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ottaviano Castello (1859-1940) |
 |
13th February 1905 | 1st March 1936 | Il Duce 1902-1936. |
| 2 | Enzo Sanmartino (1875-1964) |
 |
1st March 1936 | 18th March 1936 | Il Duce 1936. |
Electoral results
Presidential
| Election | Candidate | Votes | Vote % | Electoral votes | +/- | Outcome of election |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1905 | Ottaviano Castello | 5,985,245 | 57.53 | 80 / 150
|
 80
|
UIdDT victory |
| 1910 | Ottaviano Castello | 10,322,613 | 99.85 | 150 / 150
|
70
|
UIdDT victory |
| 1915 | Ottaviano Castello | 10,672,462 | 98.54 | 150 / 150
|
|
UIdDT victory |
| 1920 | Ottaviano Castello | 10,684,267 | 99.38 | 150 / 150
|
|
UIdDT victory |
| 1925 | Ottaviano Castello | 11,032,793 | 99.82 | 150 / 150
|
|
UIdDT victory |
| 1930 | Ottaviano Castello | 11,466,373 | 98.58 | 150 / 150
|
|
UIdDT victory |
Parliament
| Election | Total Votes | Share of votes | Seats | +/- | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1905 | TBA | 67.84% | 324 / 477
|
324
|
UIdDT supermajority |