Mussolini had just founded the Fasci di Combattimento when D'Annunzio took Fiume. Mussolini hoped to capitalize on the poet's achievement in the electoral arena.
The elections had decreed an absolute victory for the Socialists. Mussolini seemed finished, but landowners and industrialists sought his help against the strikes.
Mussolini wins the elections by a landslide, but Matteotti, a socialist, demands their annulment, denouncing the Blackshirts' violence. Mussolini decides to teach him a lesson.