Benito Mussolini's Il Popolo d'Italia, the newspaper which led to their involvement in World War II, was a major catalyst for fascism in Italy. He called for a strong central leader and intense Italian nationalism. His administration eliminated all other political parties and set up a dictatorship based on the limiting of free speech for all. Capital punishment, exile, and imprisonment were the fates of any who resisted Mussolini's regime. While Italy itself was not anti-semitic or racist, the German policies influenced their decision to pass laws regarding Jews and minority groups as lower in the social order.
