The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento (, also translatable as "Italian Fighting Bands" or "Italian Fighting Leagues") was an Italian Fascist organisation created by Benito Mussolini in 1919. It was the successor of the Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria, being notably further right than its predecessor. The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento was reorganised into the National Fascist Party in 1921. The Fasci Italiani di Combattimento was founded by Mussolini and his supporters in the aftermath of World War I, at a meeting held in Milan in March 1919. It was an ultranationalist organisation that intended to appeal to war veterans from across the political spectrum, at first without a clear political orientation. It was closely associated with Mussolini's newspaper, Il Popolo d'Italia, and Mussolini served as the leader (Duce) of the movement throughout its existence. After a very poor result in the Italian election of 1919, in which no members of the Fasci were elected to any office, the organisation moved further to the right and developed a reputation for using paramilitary violence against its political opponents, especially members of the Italian Socialist Party. Through the support of its blackshirts militia and a political alliance with the government of Giovanni Giolitti and the Italian Nationalist Association, the Fasci was able to enter the Italian Parliament for the first time after the election of 1921. In November of that year, the Fasci Italiani di Combattimento renamed and restructured itself as the National Fascist Party. History Background Benito Mussolini fought in the Royal Italian Army during World War I until he was wounded in February 1917 and discharged from the army after six months in the hospital. After making his way back to Milan, Mussolini returned to the position of chief editor of Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper he had originally founded in November 1914 to advocate for Italian entry into the war. The readership of the newspaper had declined in his absence, but Mussolini successfully revived the paper with a focus on war commentary. He sought to appeal to the former members and supporters of the Fascio d'Azione Rivoluzionaria, who had been ardent pro-war activists under his leadership in 1915. Mussolini envisioned a new political movement led by war veterans, argued that only those who had fought for their country were fit to govern, and called for a "government by men in the trenches" who would become a new ruling class, the "aristocracy of