Due to the strong control of the Germans, the party's power in the context of the Republic of Salò was always very limited. To obviate this inherent weakness, the party tried to obtain the support of the few population strata who still sympathised with fascism.[10] In the provinces under the control of the Germans it was organised into three entities called Administrative, Assistance, and Political.[11] The Assistance, also called the National Fascist Assistance Body, was formed in early October 1943. In the minds of the party leaders, the Assistance was to be a continuation of the powerful cadres of militants and volunteers of the former National Fascist Party.[11]
The PFR sought to reconnect the new party with pre-1922 radical fascism. This move attracted parts of the fascist 'Old Guard', who had been sidelined after Mussolini had come to power in 1922. The new party was, however, internally divided, with different internal tendencies vying for Mussolini's support, and whilst the PFR revived some of the early revolutionary fascist discourse, it did not return to the anti-clerical positions of the early fascist movement.[17]
^Arrigo Petacco, Il comunista in camicia nera: Nicola Bombacci tra Lenin e Mussolini, Milano, Mondadori, 1997.
^Roberto D'Angeli, Storia del Partito Fascista Repubblicano, Roma, Castelvecchi, 2016.
^Guerrazzi, Amedeo Osti. "9 From Fascism to the Italian Civil War: The Republican Fascist’s Identity from 1943 to 1945." Italy and the Second World War. Brill, 2018. 203-223.
^Roggi, Alessandra. "The role of ideology in the Italian Social Republic (1943-1945)." The role of ideology in the Italian Social Republic (1943-1945) (2015): 676-687.
^Berardi, Silvio. "L’impossibile dialogo tra repubblicani fascisti e repubblicani storici (ottobre 1943-aprile 1944)." MONDO CONTEMPORANEO 2015/1 (2015).
^Olick, Jeffrey K. 2003. States of Memory-CL: continuities, conflicts, and transformations in national retrospection. Duke University Press. ISBN0-8223-3063-6. p. 69.
^ abDianella Gagliani, Il Partito nel Fascismo Repubblicano Delle Origini: Una Prima Messa a Punto, in Rivista di Storia Contemporanea, vol. 23, n. 1/2, 1º gennaio 1994, pp. 130-169.
^Stanley Payne (1992). "Fascism". In Mary E. Hawkesworth; Maurice Kogan (eds.). Encyclopedia of Government and Politics. Psychology Press. p. 177. ISBN978-0-415-07224-3.
^Jim Powell, "The Economic Leadership Secrets of Benito Mussolini", Forbes, 22 February 2012
^Eugen Weber. The Western Tradition: From the Renaissance to the present. Heath, 1972. Pp. 791.
^Stanislao G. Pugliese. Fascism, anti-fascism, and the resistance in Italy: 1919 to the present. Oxford, England, UK: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2004. pp. 43–44.