The headquarters of Mussolini's Italian Fascist Party, 1934

The building in the picture is the Palazzo Brachi in Rome, the headquarters of the Fascist Party Federation (the local one, not the national party headquarters). It was not always covered like this; This set-up was demonstrated for the 1934 elections, in which Italians were called to vote for or against the list of fascist representatives.

The letters "Si si..." (meaning "yes yes...") were campaigning for one of two referendum elections held during the fascist regime, where voters did not vote for individual parties (in the Fascist's). There was no one other than that), neither for single candidates, but only in a list of candidates submitted by the Deuce who voted "yes" or "no".

Two ballot papers and two envelopes were used in the voting process; The Yes ballot was in the colors of the Italian flag with fascist symbols, while the No ballot was a white sheet.

The voter had to envelop the ballots, put their chosen ballot in the ballot box and return the discarded ballot paper to polling observers, allowing them to check exactly what everyone had voted for.

The list put forward was eventually approved by 99.84% of voters. The overwhelming majority prompted Benito Mussolini to call the election "the second plebiscite of fascism".

When Mussolini promised a new world order for Italy, he set out to give Rome a fascist mask. In Rome, the capital of the "fascist empire", Mussolini's grand plan was to replace the city with propaganda buildings and urban stages, the look and feel of which would broadcast his achievements and objectives. (This was what Roman emperors and the Popes of the Catholic Church did for centuries, of course, without the inflated egos of so many previous rulers).

In the 1920s and '30s architects took their cues from the forms of classical Roman buildings, but while the monumental structures of imperial Rome have ornate details and rounded edges that give them a certain Mediterranean warmth, fascist buildings were Teutonic blocks of incredible travertine, which They were cold and refused.