Stresa Front

The Stresa Front was an agreement made in Stresa, a town on the banks of Lake Maggiore in Italy, between French foreign minister Pierre Laval, British prime minister Ramsay MacDonald, and Italian prime minister Benito Mussolini on April 14, 1935. Formally called the Final Declaration of the Stresa Conference, its aim was to reaffirm the Locarno Treaties and to declare that the independence of Austria "would continue to inspire their common policy". The signatories also agreed to resist any future attempt by the Germans to change the Treaty of Versailles. Most importantly for Benito Mussolini, it was another opportunity to stage Fascist propaganda as the 'Duce' was portrayed as an elder statesman and a keeper of the peace (after the failed Anschluss of 1934).