Combatants' Party

The Combatants' Party (Italian: Partito dei Combattenti, PdC) was a nationalist political party in Italy, whose aim was to protect the interests of Great War veterans.
== History ==
It was formed for the 1919 general election and gained 4.1% of the vote and 20 seats in the Chamber of Deputies. The party joined the leftist Italian Socialist Party of Nicola Bombacci as part of the opposition against the Christian democrat/Liberal majority.
By the 1921 election it had declined and won only 1.7% of the vote and 10 seats. They ran in an electoral alliance with the Sardinian nationalist Sardinian Action Party during this election. This time they joined the governing coalition of the right headed up by the Italian People's Party and the National Blocs.
The party progressively drifted closer to the fascists, which prompted the left-wing Sardinian Action Party to break off ties. Some members supported the failed fascist coup d'etat that was retrospectively labelled the March on Rome. After this was suppressed by the Royal Army, the PdC came under pressure from government authorities due to its fascist ties and chose to disband itself ahead of the 1924 elections, becoming an apolitical veterans organization known as the National Association of Combatants and Veterans (Associazione Nazionale Combattenti e Reduci).
Category:Italian political parties
Category:Defunct political parties