u/GinoBobbo

The monarchy in Biennio Rosso

I've played around with the Biennio Rosso mod for a bit and I think it's a very well made mod. However, in my opinion, there's a part which is a bit incomplete: the role of the King. In game, it's repeated that Victor Emmanuel is a reactionary and an autocrat, and if you don't get rid of him at the end of the game, it gets treated as a failure.

The thing is, V.E. wasn't really a reactionary or an autocrat: he was a constitutional legalist, one could say too much of one. He only cared about respecting the Statute to the letter (or at least, he used this excuse for his inaction), which is possibly why he let the fascists do as they pleased in government, since they technically never broke it, at least up until after the Leggi Fascistissime.

Then there's the part about him losing popularity if you get him to authorize the army to intervene against the fascists in 1922. I understand this is probably a way to strengthen the role of the PRI and pave the way for an eventual Republic at the end of the constitutional reforms chain, but it doesn't feel historically accurate at all: the King was popular as hell after WWI, and ordering to repell a bunch of upstart fascists who tried to bully their way into power? I feel like that would make him even more popular in the eyes of the populace.

I know this would make the creation of a Republic much harder to justify in game, but I feel like there could be a better way to implement that, maybe an option between transforming Italy in a fully parliamentary monarchy, or maminga government with the PRI at some point to force an institutional referendum, akin to the 1946 one? Anyways, I really love this mod and the paths it offers (Mussolini -> D'Annunzio -> Grandi -> PNF collapsing was satisfying), and it would be basically flawless for me if this part about Italy was more nuanced. Peak mod ngl

reddit.com
u/GinoBobbo — 6 days ago