Il Piccolo
- An article by Arnaldo Mussolini on the measures in defence of the Regime
- The investigations of the Bologna police
- Young Fascist barbarously killed by deputy Lussu in Cagliari
Il Piccolo's front page of 3 November 1926, three days after the shot fired at Mussolini in Bologna, was dominated by the regime's response. It carried an article by Arnaldo Mussolini arguing that Fascism admits no legitimate anti-Fascism and no 'anti-national' newspaper, that the struggle is one of 'life or death', and that Fascism therefore cannot be bound by normal procedures. A report on the Bologna police inquiry said that Anteo Zamboni had carried, besides a pistol, a small bottle of what seemed to be vitriol, supposedly to fend off those who would seize him. From Cagliari, a Stefani dispatch described the funeral of Battista Corrà, a young Fascist the paper said had been barbarously killed by deputy Emilio Lussu, ending with the crowd's triple ritual answer of 'Present!'.
Translation
An article by Arnaldo Mussolini on the measures in defence of the Regime
"The adversaries who were already mocking 'Caesarean' Fascism, who made witticisms about our 'imperialism', who exhausted their task in speaking ill of Mussolini, or at the very least in preparing drafts of the anti-Fascist legislation of 1927, must by now have been persuaded that Fascism is a granite movement that does not crumble, but instead crushes those who dispute its path. Those who are steeped in abstract principles object that, just as there is Fascism, there can be anti-Fascism; just as there is the national newspaper, there can be the anti-national newspaper. This is an error that Fascism repudiates: these are impossible equations, which our movement flatly rejects. If Fascism is the new custom of Italian politics, Italians must conform to this rule of life. A handful of subversives or criminals therefore cannot create the other term of the equation. It is not a matter of opposition or of criticism. It is a matter of life or death. And so Fascism, by its law and by its revolutionary custom, cannot settle into normal procedures."
The investigations of the Bologna police
Zamboni was not armed only with a pistol: in the lining of a pocket of his torn jacket, a small bottle was found, wrapped in a piece of paper, containing a yellowish liquid; it seems to be vitriol, and it is presumable that the attacker had supplied himself with the corrosive liquid to use it as a weapon of defence against those who would have thrown themselves on him at the firing of the pistol shot.
Young Fascist barbarously killed by deputy Lussu in Cagliari
Deputy Pili conveyed to the family of the slain man the condolences of all of Fascism in the name of the secretary of the Party, the Hon. Turati, who had telegraphed him expressly entrusting him with this task. Before the cemetery, amid a multitude of wreaths, flags, pennants and pennons, the Hon. Pili called Battista Corrà three times, and three times the enormous crowd answered: "Present!" (Stefani).
Context
The exceptional laws enacted in November 1926
The page headlines Arnaldo Mussolini's article on 'measures in defence of the Regime', and its closing claim that Fascism 'cannot settle into normal procedures' matches what was enacted within weeks. Royal decree 6 November 1926, n. 1848, the consolidated public-security text, instructed prefects to dissolve all parties, associations and organizations acting against the regime, and the same decree provided police confinement (confino) for anti-Fascists. On 9 November the Chamber of Deputies declared the seats of the Aventine deputies forfeit. Law 25 November 1926, n. 2008 then created the Special Tribunal for the Defence of the State, whose jurisdiction over crimes against the security of the State included the death penalty. These acts belong to the series of 1925–1926 measures known as the leggi fascistissime. The article printed on 3 November argues for such measures before they existed; it does not report them.
The article's rejection of an 'anti-national newspaper' and the press law
When Arnaldo Mussolini calls the 'anti-national newspaper' an impossible equation, the Italian press was already under government control. The press law of 31 December 1925, n. 2307, in force from 20 January 1926, allowed newspapers to be directed, written and printed only if they had a responsible editor recognized by the procurator general of the court of appeal. The implementing regulation of 11 March 1926 required the procurator to consult the prefect, so the director of any newspaper had to be someone not unwelcome to the government, or the paper could not be published. The article's argument thus moves from a press already filtered by these rules to the position that no opposition paper should exist at all.
The Bologna shot and Anteo Zamboni
On 31 October 1926 a shot was fired at Mussolini as he rode in an open car through Bologna, and a 15-year-old boy, Anteo Zamboni, was lynched. The episode followed Violet Gibson's pistol shot of 7 April 1926, which grazed Mussolini's nose, and the anarchist marble worker Gino Lucetti's bomb thrown at his car at Porta Pia in Rome on 11 September 1926. The police report on this page treats Zamboni as the established attacker and adds the detail of a bottle that seemed to contain vitriol. The terrorism specialist J. Bowyer Bell, by contrast, wrote that the boy was likely innocent and that the affair was either a put-up job or a plot among Fascists. Whatever its origin, the attempt led to laws creating Mussolini's secret police.
The Cagliari shooting and Emilio Lussu's trial
Anti-Fascist records describe the Cagliari events as an assault on Lussu's home rather than the 'barbarous' killing in the headline. According to the ANPI biography, on 31 October 1926 squadristi attacked Lussu's house in Cagliari in force; he barricaded himself in and repelled the assault with pistol shots, one Fascist was killed, and Lussu was arrested and spent thirteen months in prison. He was acquitted at the investigative stage on grounds of self-defence, but by Mussolini's will was confined for five years on Lipari. His English-language biography likewise places the shooting on the same day as the Bologna attack, calls it self-defence, and attributes the later five-year confinement to Fascist political interference. Lussu had been among the Aventine secessionists after Matteotti's murder, and his term as deputy ended on 9 November 1926. The excerpted dispatch shows only the Fascist side's funeral ritual, with Turati's condolences and the crowd's 'Present!'.
Original
Un articolo di Arnaldo Mussolini sui provvedimenti a difesa del Regime
«Gli avversari che già irridevano al Fascismo «cesareo», che facevano dello spirito sul nostro «imperialismo», esaurivano il loro compito a dire male di Mussolini, o quanto meno, a preparare dei saggi di legislazione antifascista del 1927, devono essersi persuasi che il Fascismo è un movimento granitico che non si sfalda, ma invece schiaccia coloro che gli contendono il cammino. Coloro che sono imbevuti di principi astratti, obiettano che, come vi è il Fascismo, vi può essere l'antifascismo, come vi è il giornale nazionale, vi può essere il giornale antinazionale. E ' questo un errore che il Fascismo ripudia: sono equazioni impossibili, che il nostro movimento nettamente respinge. Se il Fascismo è il nuovo costume della politica italiana, gli italiani devono uniformarsi a questa norma di vita. Non può quindi un manipolo di sovvertitori o criminali creare l'altro termine dell'equazione. Non si tratta di opposizione o di critica. Si tratta di vita o di morte. E allora il Fascismo non può adagiarsi per la sua legge e per il suo costume rivoluzionario alle procedure normali».
Le indagini della polizia di Bologna
Lo Zamboni non era armato soltanto di pistola: nelle fodere di una tasca della giacca stracciata, si è trovata una bottiglietta avvolta in un pezzo di carta che conteneva un liquido giallastro; pare si tratti di vetriolo ed è presumibile che l'attentatore si fosse munito del liquido corrosivo per servirsene come arma di difesa contro coloro i quali si sarebbero gettati su di lui allo sparo della pistolettata.
Giovane fascista ucciso barbaramente dal deputato Lussu a Cagliari
Il deputato Pili ha rivolto alla famiglia dell'ucciso il cordoglio di tutto il Fascismo a nome del segretario del Partito, on. Turati, che gli aveva telegrafato incaricandolo espressamente. Dinanzi al cimitero, tra una moltitudine di corone, bandiere, gagliardetti e fiamme, l'on. Pili ha chiamato tre volte Battista Corrà, e per tre volte l ' enorme folla ha risposto: «Presente!». (Stefani).
Source: Source: Internet Archive