Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy

A vote at 2:30 in the morning

The Fascist Grand Council had convened on 24 July 1943; at about 2:30 a.m. on the 25th, in Palazzo Venezia, it approved Dino Grandi's motion urging the restoration of the Crown's constitutional powers, including command of the armed forces.

The vote was 19 in favour, 8 against, one abstention — with Mussolini seated at the table.

The motion did not itself remove or arrest him. It restored royal authority; the king's separate action was the decisive one.

Villa Savoia, that afternoon

Mussolini met King Victor Emmanuel III at Villa Savoia later that day. The king removed him as head of government, and Carabinieri arrested him as he left.

The immediate pressures were military: the Allied landing in Sicily, the bombing of Rome, and parallel plotting by Fascist leaders, senior officers and the monarchy.

“The war continues”

At 10:45 p.m. Italian radio announced Mussolini's fall and the appointment of Pietro Badoglio — a Marshal of Italy, not simply a general — to form a new government.

Badoglio's first proclamation declared that the war would continue, disappointing expectations that Mussolini's removal meant immediate peace. Crowds began attacking Fascist emblems anyway.

It ended Mussolini's original regime but not Fascist rule in Italy: he later headed the German-backed Italian Social Republic in occupied territory.