The PFR was the successor to the National Fascist Party but was more influenced by pre-1922 early radical fascism and anti-monarchism, as its members considered King Victor Emmanuel III to be a traitor after his agreement of the signing of the surrender to the Allies.

Due to the strong control of the Germans, the party's power in the context of the Republic of Salò was always very limited.

[19] In addition, the party promoted a revolutionary[20][21] form of Italian nationalism,[22][23][24][25] antisemitism,[26][27] anti-liberalism,[28][29] anti-communism,[30] anti-capitalism,[31] anti-monarchism, and republicanism.

The RSI program, set out in the "Verona Manifesto" and approved by the congress of the Republican Fascist Party (Verona 15-16 November 1943), revived the revolutionary formulas of early fascism and included, among other things, the abandonment of corporatism and the creation of a National Confederation of Labour, a broad program of social welfare and worker participation in company profits.

[32] The program, opposed by the Germans and by Italian industrialists, was not implemented while, starting with the strikes of March 1944, a growing workers' opposition to the RSI developed.