Francesco Giunta

Francesco Giunta (21 March 1887 – 8 June 1971) was an Italian Fascist politician. A leading figure in the early years of fascism, he helped to build the movement in several regions of the country and was particularly active in Trieste. During the Second World War he became notorious for his role in occupied Yugoslavia.

Born in the Tuscan town of San Piero a Sieve, he started his career as a lawyer, having studied law and philosophy at university. He served as a machine gun captain in World War I, having joined the army in 1915. After the war he was involved in the establishment of the ex-service group Associazione Nazionale dei Combattenti, as well as the more overtly political Alleanza di Difesa Cittadina, an anti-socialist group with a strong military bent that was involved in battles with leftists.

An early member of the Italian fascist movement, Giunta was the leader of fascio in Florence before in 1920 being sent the Julian March (Venezia Giulia) to aid Professor Ruggero Conforto in establishing the fascist movement in the region. Having garnered a reputation as a good organiser, he was subsequently sent to Trieste that same year to work under Gabriele D'Annunzio. Under the direction of D'Annunzio he became the propaganda chief in Fiume and a deputy for the city from 1921 to 1939. He worked with Benito Mussolini to set up a number of Fascist squads that attacked a group of allegedly separatist Slovenes in northern Istria. As a Fascist leader (ras) of Trieste, he built up an early mass support base for the Fascist movement. In July 1920, he led the squad that burnt down the Narodni dom, the community centre of the Slovenes in Trieste. Giunta gained fame in March 1922 when he followed the example of D'Annunzio by staging a coup in the Free State of Fiume with 2000 followers and by doing so laying down the foundations for the official Italian takeover in 1924.

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