 In 1924, he was elected to the Italian Parliament on the unified list of Slovene, Croat and South Tyrolean parties.Besednjak thus became, together with the national liberal politician Josip Wilfan who was also elected on the same list, the highest representative of the around half a million South Slavs living in Italy.He quickly rose to prominence for his eloquent defence of minority rights against Fascist Italianization.