A short-lived state around Fiume (Rijeka) set up by Gabriele D'Annunzio after he occupied the city in 1919. Its 1920 Carta del Carnaro, prepared with the syndicalist Alceste De Ambris, mixed universal suffrage, corporations and a famous article on music. Italian forces ended it in December 1920.
On 12 September 1919 D'Annunzio and about 300 supporters occupied Fiume, which Italy and the Allies were disputing, and ruled as Comandante. The Carta, read publicly on 30 August 1920, proclaimed the sovereignty of all citizens without distinction of sex, race, language, class or religion. Productive citizens joined ten corporations, the tenth without art, number or name and symbolised by a lamp. A Council of the Best (universal suffrage) and a Council of Provisioners (chosen by corporations) met once a year as the Arengo. Article 64 called music a ‘religious and social institution’. The Treaty of Rapallo (12 November 1920) made Fiume a free state; D'Annunzio refused it and Italian forces moved against him in December.
The Carta was a design for a new order and was never tested in ordinary conditions during some 15 months of military-backed rule. Britannica calls D'Annunzio a protofascist; how far Fiume foreshadowed fascism is debated.
The Regency was diplomatically isolated. After the Treaty of Rapallo made Fiume a free state, D'Annunzio did not recognise it; Italian forces under General Caviglia cleared the city in late December 1920 (the ‘Christmas of Blood’) and power passed to a provisional government on 31 December.
The Carta del Carnaro recognised the sovereignty of all citizens without distinction of sex, race, language, class or religion, gave political rights at 20 regardless of sex, and set up a Council of the Best elected by universal suffrage and a Council of Provisioners elected by the corporations.[1]
The Carta enrolled productive citizens in ten corporations, the tenth having ‘neither art nor number nor name’ and represented by a lamp; Article 64 declares music a ‘religious and social institution’ and says the pauses of music form the ‘silence of the tenth corporation’.[1]
Britannica calls D'Annunzio a protofascist political leader who ruled Fiume as dictator; how far his Fiume regime foreshadowed fascism, and how far the Carta's syndicalist elements point elsewhere, is debated.[1][2]