Toscanini had refused to play "Giovinezza" in Milan in 1922 and later in Bayreuth, which earned him accolades from anti-fascists throughout Europe.
As a futurist and a legionario fiumiano, he edited Il Popolo d'Italia and in 1920 was one of the founders of the student avant-garde within the fighting Fascist party and became director of the review Giovinezza.