only men could vote), to introduce referendums, to abolish the Senate, and to eliminate all titles based on caste or class, among others. For the Right, Mussolini endorsed nationalist claims over Fiume and Dalmatia, and the Fasci proposed to take the government out of business and transfer large segments of the economy from public to private control. Soon after its foundation, the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento began engaging in political violence against its enemies. On 15 April 1919, the offices and printing equipment of the main socialist newspaper, Avanti!, were attacked and destroyed by a group of Fascists led by Marinetti and Ferruccio Vecchi. Mussolini himself did not claim responsibility for the attack, but he defended it and considered it "the first material achievement of the fascist revolution". Later that year, in November 1919, parliamentary elections were held in Italy. The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento allowed each of its local branches to approach the election however it saw fit. Many local branches decided on their own electoral program, some moving sharply to the right, although Mussolini and his Milan branch put forward a leftist and anti-clerical program. This was an attempt to win votes away from the socialists, but it proved to be an electoral disaster when Mussolini and his party gathered fewer than 5000 votes, compared to 190,000 votes for the socialists in Milan alone. The election result was so dismal that even in Mussolini's home village of Predappio, not a single person voted for him. In a mock funeral procession after the election, members of the Italian Socialist Party carried a coffin that bore Mussolini's name, parading it past his apartment to symbolise the end of his political career. Reorientation and rise After the disastrous results in the November 1919 election, the membership of the Fasci dwindled, with fewer than 4000 members left by the end of the year. Mussolini briefly considered leaving politics, emigrating away from Italy and pursuing a career in writing fiction. However, it soon became apparent that the newly elected parliament was unable to form any governing coalition. The largest party were the socialists, a situation that alarmed the conservatives and made them seek new political allies to block any potential socialist government. Mussolini saw an opportunity to re-orient the Fasci towards an alliance with the traditional political Right and decided to remain in politics. Through a newspaper campaign in favour of increased armaments