http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giacomo_Matteotti
Giacomo Matteotti; 22 May 1885 – 10 June 1924) was an Italian socialist politician.
On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists
committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence they
used to gain votes. Eleven days later he was kidnapped and killed by Fascists.
Political career
A graduate in law from the University of Bologna and from early on
an activist in the socialist movement and the Italian Socialist Party, he opposed Italy's
entry into World War I (and was interned in Sicily during
the conflict for this reason).
He was elected deputy three times: in 1919, 1921 and 1924.
As a follower of Filippo
Turati, Matteotti became the leader of the United Socialist Party in
the Italian Chamber of Deputies after
the scission of the Socialist Party. He openly spoke out against Fascism and Benito
Mussolini, and for a time was leader of the opposition to the National Fascist Party (PNF). Since 1921 he
denounced fascist violence in a pamphlet titled Inchiesta socialista sulle
gesta dei fascisti in Italia (Socialist enquiry on the deeds of the
fascists in Italy).
Murder
He was murdered on 10 June 1924, after the publication of
his book The Fascisti Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination and two
fierce and lengthy speeches in the Chamber of Deputies denouncing Fascism.[1]
During a kidnap attempt, he was bundled into a car and
stabbed several times with a carpenter's file as he was struggling to escape.
His corpse was found near Riano, 20 miles from Rome, on 16 August
1924, after an extensive search.
Five men (Amerigo
Dumini - a prominent member of the Fascist secret police, the Ceka, Giuseppe Viola,
Albino Volpi, Augusto Malacria and Amleto Poveromo) were arrested a few days
after the kidnapping. Only three (Dumini, Volpi and Poveromo) were convicted
and shortly after released under amnesty by King Victor Emmanuel III; one, Filippo Panzeri,
escaped before the arrests of his accomplices.
Before the trial against the murderers, the High Court of
the Senate started a trial against general Emilio
De Bono, commander of the MVSN, but he was discharged.
After the Second World War, in 1947, the trial against Francesco
Giunta, Cesare Rossi, Dumini, Viola, Poveromo,
Malacria, Filippelli and Panzeri was re-opened. Dumini, Viola and Poveromo were
sentenced to life imprisonment.
In none of these three trials was evidence found of
Mussolini's involvement.[2]
Mussolini's alleged involvement
The involvement of Mussolini in the assassination is much
debated.
Historians suggest some different theories. The main
biographer of Mussolini, Renzo
De Felice, was convinced that the Duce was innocent. Even Aurelio Lepre and Emilio
Gentile thought that Mussolini did not want the death of Matteotti.
The former socialist and anti-fascist journalist Carlo Silvestri in 1924
was a harsh accuser of Mussolini; later, when he joined Italian Social Republic, he affirmed that
Mussolini showed him Matteotti Case's papers,[3] and
eventually he changed his mind.[4] Silvestri
became a strong defender of Mussolini's innocence in Matteotti's murder, and
suggested that the socialist was killed by a plot, in order both to damage
Mussolini's attempt to raise a leftist government (with the participation of
Socialists and Popolari) and to cover some scandals in which the Crown (with
the American oil company Sinclair
Oil) was involved.
De Felice argued that maybe Mussolini himself was a
political victim of a plot, and almost surely he was damaged by the crisis that
followed the murder. Many fascists left the Party, and his government was about
to collapse. Moreover, his secret attempt to bring Socialists and Populars into
a new reformist government was ruined.
On the other hand, other historians of the time, including Justin
Pollard and Denis
Mack Smith, thought Mussolini was probably aware of the assassination plot
but that it was ordered and organized by someone else.
Mauro Canali suggests that
Mussolini probably did order the murder, as Matteotti uncovered and wanted to
make public incriminating documents proving that Mussolini and his associates
sold to an American oil company—Sinclair
Oil—exclusive rights to all
Italian oil
reserves.[5]
Consequences of the murder
The death of Matteotti sparked widespread criticism of
Fascism. A general strike was threatened in retaliation.
Since Mussolini's government did not collapse and the King
refused to dismiss him, all the anti-fascists (except for the Communist Party of Italy) started to
abandon the Chamber of Deputies. They retired on the "Aventine
Mount", like ancient Roman plebeians. They thought to force the Crown to
act against Mussolini, but on the contrary this strengthened Mussolini. After a
few weeks of confusion, Mussolini gained a favourable vote by the Senate of the
Kingdom, and tried to defuse the tension with a speech.
Despite pressure from the opposition, Victor Emmanuel III
refused to dismiss Mussolini, since the Government was supported by a large
majority of the Chamber of Deputies and almost all the Senate of the Kingdom.
Moreover, he feared that compelling Mussolini to resign could be considered a coup
d'état, that eventually could lead to a civil war between the Army and the Blackshirts.[6]
But during the Summer, the trial against Matteotti's alleged
murders and the discovery of the corpse of Matteotti once again spread rage
against Mussolini: newspapers launched fierce attacks on him and the fascist
movement.
On September the 13th, a right-wing fascist deputy, Armando Casalini, was killed
on a tramway as retaliation to Matteotti's murder by the anti-fascist Giovanni
Corvi.
During the Autumn of 1924, the extremist-wing of the Fascist
Party threatened Mussolini with a coup, and dealt with him on the night of San
Silvestro of 1924. Mussolini devised a counter-manoeuvre, and on the 3rd of
January 1925 he pronounced in a famous speech,[7] both
attacking anti-fascists and confirming that he, and only he, was the leader of
Fascism. He challenged the anti-fascists to prosecute him, and claimed proudly
that Fascism was the "superb passion of the best youth of Italy" and
grimly that "all the violence" was his responsibility, because he had
created the climate of violence. Mussolini concluded with a menace: Italy needs
stability and Fascism would assure stability to Italy in any manner necessary.
This speech is considered the very beginning of the
dictatorship in Italy.
Works
1924 The Fascisti Exposed: A Year of Fascist Domination, (1969)
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