Il Piccolo
- The Duce's announcement to the crowd
- The Chamber convened for the 9th of this month
- The presentation to the Duke of Aosta
Il Piccolo of 5 November 1926 carried Mussolini's brief words to a crowd of Roman Blackshirts: he thanked them, said it was no hour for speeches, and promised that “tomorrow morning” they would have the deeds they were waiting for, to frenzied cheering. A parliamentary report announced the Chamber's convocation for the 9th and summarised Alfredo Rocco's report, which claimed everyone now agreed that a law restoring capital punishment for attempts on the life of the King, the Queen, the Regent, the Crown Prince and the Head of Government was indispensable and urgent. From Turin the paper described a rain-soaked but imposing ceremony in Piazza San Carlo, where army units and the Militia formed a square for the presentation of a marshal's baton to the Duke of Aosta.
Translation
The Duce's announcement to the crowd
When silence had at last been obtained with great difficulty, H.E. Mussolini spoke the following words: “I want to tell you three things: first of all, I thank you for your greeting, in which I feel the ardour and the sincere faith that animate all the Blackshirts of the City; second, that this is not the hour for making speeches; third, that tomorrow morning you will have the deeds you are waiting for.” A tremendous roar of approval, enthusiastic acclamations and frenzied cheers greeted the words of the Duce, who then withdrew to his study.
The Chamber convened for the 9th of this month
The report of the Hon. Rocco is very ample and detailed. It examines in the first place the question of whether it is advisable to restore the death penalty, and concludes that by now everyone agrees in regarding as indispensable and not to be postponed the enactment of a law re-establishing capital punishment for all those who, by attempting the life of the Sovereign, the Queen, the Regent, the Crown Prince and the Head of Government, gravely compromise the security of the State and the tranquillity of the …
The presentation to the Duke of Aosta
Despite the rainy weather, the ceremony for the presentation of the marshal's baton to H.R.H. the Duke of Aosta proved most imposing. From eight o'clock the various units of the troops stationed in Turin and the units of the Militia begin to stream into Piazza S. Carlo, forming up in a square in the broad piazza, which is decked all over with flags.
Context
The Bologna shooting behind the promised “deeds”
Mussolini's promise of “deeds” for the next morning followed the shooting in Bologna on 31 October 1926. As Mussolini's car moved down via Rizzoli, a shot passed through his collar; it was attributed to Anteo Zamboni, a 15-year-old anarchist, whom the Duce's fascist admirers killed on the spot with blows and knives. Accounts of the episode describe it as the pretext for a raft of repressive legislation, including a secret police and the dissolution of the political opposition. Mimmo Franzinelli's study of the 1926 attempts on Mussolini, as reviewed in ItaliaOggi, argues that the attempts were used to push through the special laws and to dismantle what little remained of Italy's free institutions. The article itself reports only the crowd's acclaim and never says what the deeds would be. Read against this background, Mussolini's words to the Roman Blackshirts are best understood as a public announcement of the exceptional measures that were about to follow.
What the Chamber convened for the 9th was asked to pass
The Chamber's convocation for the 9th, which the paper announced, matches the date on which a bill for the defence of the State was adopted in Parliament without debate, on 9 November 1926. The Senate discussed it on 20 November, and the law came into force on 25 November 1926. It had eight articles: Articles 1 and 2 introduced the death penalty, and Article 7 created the Special Tribunal. Rocco's report, as quoted on this page, presents the restoration of capital punishment for attempts on the royal family and the Head of Government as something on which “everyone” already agreed. That consensus is the report's own claim, and the record that the bill passed the Chamber without discussion shows that it was not tested in open debate in the Chamber. Alongside the law, the regime banned the anti-fascist press, dissolved all parties and organisations outside fascist control, and created police confinement (confino), under which unwelcome political opponents could be interned in remote areas without a court verdict, so that repression of anti-fascists became an institution.
The Special Tribunal and how the death penalty was applied
The law that put Rocco's arguments into effect also created a court that sat outside the ordinary judiciary. Setting up such a special body was incompatible with the Statuto Albertino, which was still formally in force; its Article 71 declared that no one could be removed from his natural judges and that extraordinary tribunals or commissions could not be created. Under Law no. 2008 the remaining five judges, besides the president, were drawn from the Militia (the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale) alone. The tribunal's record shows that the death penalty restored by the law was actually used: it handed down 42 death sentences, of which 31 were carried out, nine between 1928 and 1932 and the rest in 1941 and 1942.
The Marshal of Italy rank and the Duke of Aosta's baton
The baton presented in Turin belonged to a rank that the Fascist government had itself created. Mussolini instituted the rank of Marshal of Italy in 1924 to honour Generals Luigi Cadorna and Armando Diaz, the commanders of the Great War, and from 1926 to 1943 it was granted to several other general officers. Prince Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Aosta, appears in the list of Marshals of Italy with a promotion date of 25 June 1926. The article calls him His Royal Highness and describes army units and the Militia drawn up side by side in Piazza San Carlo, so the ceremony brought together a member of the House of Savoy, a distinction created by Mussolini, and the Militia. The rank did not outlive the monarchy: it was abolished in 1946 with the creation of the Italian Republic.
Original
Un annunzio del Duce alla folla
Ottenutosi a gran fatica il silenzio, S. E Mussolini ha pronunciato le seguenti parole: «Voglio dirvi tre cose: prima di tutto vi ringrazio per il vostro saluto nel quale sento l'ardore e la fede sincera che anima tutte le camicie nere dell'Urbe; seconda, che non è l'ora di fare discorsi; terza, che domani mattina avrete i fatti che attendete». Un urlo formidabile di approvazione e acclamazioni entusiastiche ed evviva frenetici accolgono le parole del Duce che si è quindi ritirato nella sua stanza da lavoro.
La Camera convocata per il 9 corr.
relazione dell'on. Rocco è molto ama e dettagliata. Essa esamina in primo luola questione dell'opportunità del ripristidella pena di morte, per concludere che mai tutti sono concordi nel ritenere indiensabile e improrogabile l'emanazione di na legge che ristabilisca la pena, capitale r tutti coloro che attentando alla vita l Sovrano, della Regina, del Reggente, l Principe Ereditario e del Capo del Goerno vengono a compromettere gravemente sicurezza dello Stato e la tranquillità del
La consegna al Duca d'Aosta
Malgrado il tempo piovoso, la manifestazione per la consegna del bastone di maresciallo a S. A. R. il Duca d'Aosta è riuscita imponentissima. Fin dalle otto i vari reparti delle truppe di stanza a Torino ed i reparti della Milizia incominciano ad atfluire in piazza S. Carlo, disponendosi in quadrato nell'ampia piazza tutta adorna di bandiere.
Source: Source: Internet Archive