f 1925 and the Exceptional Decrees of 1926 and 1928.
             The freedom to have a choice of political parties was also destroyed under the fascist regime. When Mussolini came to power in 1922, the fascists held but 7 percent of the seats in the lower chamber in Parliament. Mussolini knew that whoever held the majority in Parliament also made up the government, and so convinced Parliament to pass the Acerbo electoral law in 1923. This law stated that the party who had 25 percent of the votes in the following elections would automatically gain two thirds of the seats in Parliament and thus form the government. In the following elections in 1924, the fascists won 64 percent of the votes, and as the Acerbo electoral law stated, took control of two thirds of the Parliament and formed the government. However, the following step to a dictatorship and totalitarian state was to eliminate all opposition parties. The Aventine Secession (1924), which was a consequence of the Matteotti Crisis, gave Mussolini this opportunity. The Aventine Secession was the walking of all non-fascist deputies out of Parliament, in protest to the Matteotti Crisis. The Communists, the Nationalists, and the Right-Wing Liberals were allowed to return to Parliament, while Matteoti's party, the PSU, or the socialist party (banned completely in 1925) and the Popolari deputies were not allowed to return. However, an assassination attempt on Mussolini in 1926 caused him to remove all opposition parties from Parliament, and to surpress opposition party activities. He set up a 'special tribunal' ( 'Special Tribunal for the defence of the State') to repress anti-fascist activity. This ensured that all opposition had been dealt with, and Italy was now a one-party state. The formalisation of the one-party state came in 1928, when an electoral law stated that all parliamentary candidates had to be selected by the Fascist Grand Council. This list of candidates...