Augusto De Marsanich

Who was Augusto De Marsanich?

Augusto De Marsanich was an Italian National Fascist Party politician and the second leader of the Italian Social Movement.

De Marsanich was born at Rome. He served as undersecretary of communications from 1935 to 1943 and also represented Italy at the League of Nations during the Ethiopia crisis. He also was a regular contributor to a number of fascist journals, notably Giuseppe Bottai's Critica Fascista. He was also the maternal uncle of novelist Alberto Moravia and helped to ensure that he enjoyed the patronage of Benito Mussolini's government.

De Marsanich joined the MSI after the Second World War and was part of the more moderate tendency with the party. 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 hardline 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, along with Per Engdahl, Maurice Bardèche and Karl-Heinz Priester.