Aventine Secession (20th century)
The Aventine Secession was the withdrawal of the parliament opposition, mainly comprising the Italian Socialist Party, Italian Liberal Party, Italian People's Party and Italian Communist Party, from the Chamber of Deputies in 1924–25, following the murder of the deputy Giacomo Matteotti by fascists on 10 June 1924.
Not to be confused with Secessio plebis.The secession was named after the Aventine Secession in ancient Rome. This act of protest heralded the assumption of total power by Benito Mussolini and his National Fascist Party and the establishment of a one-party dictatorship in Italy. It was unsuccessful in opposing the National Fascist Party, and after two years the Chamber of Deputies ruled that the 123 Aventine deputies had forfeited their positions. In the following years, many of the "Aventinian" deputies were forced into exile or imprisoned.
Outcome[edit]
Without the socialists, the vote of no 'confidence' in Mussolini was a failure. The Aventinian opposition failed to react, both due to the immediate repressions ordered by Mussolini and for its internal divisions.[12] It preferred to pursue changing the public opinion on fascism, rather than re-entering Parliament and fighting as a minority party.[13]
King Victor Emmanuel III was disinclined to invoke further violence from the Fascist squads, and thus allowed Mussolini to keep his position as Prime Minister. The Secession actually aided Mussolini in his consolidation of power by eliminating all meaningful parliamentary opposition and depriving the King of any excuse to dismiss him. With the opposition thus reduced to inaction, Mussolini set about building his fascist state.[14]
In January 1925, Mussolini declared a de facto dictatorship and started a series of repressive measures designed to destroy opposition. The groups of Italia libera were suppressed between 3 and 6 January that year. Acting as a high court, the Italian Senate gave a ruling on Emilio De Bono, solicited by Luigi Albertini and other Catholics.[15] The ruling was archived after six months after Filippelli retracted his testimony from 24 March. Cesare Rossi was acquitted and released from prison in December 1925. On 20 July Giovanni Amendola was attacked by fascist squads in The Tuscan town of Pieve a Nievole. He never recovered from the attack and died in Cannes in April 1926.
On 16 January 1926 some of the populist and democratic-socialist Members of Parliament entered the Palazzo Montecitorio to assist with the mourning ceremonies for Margherita of Savoy. Shortly after, fascist parliamentarians violently expelled them from the hall.[16] The day after, Mussolini accused the parliamentarians who had been expelled, accusing them of indecency against the queen.[17]
Between 16 and 24 March the trial against Dumini and other people implicated in Matteotti's death was held. The judgment closed with three absolutions and three condemnations for pre-meditated homicide (among them Dumini), with sentences of 5 years, 11 months, and 20 days.
In the following days, after the attempted assassination of Mussolini on 31 October, the constitution was suspended and the laws of exceptional, the leggi fascistissime , were approved. With the king's decree of 5 November, a Testo unico delle leggi di pubblica sicurezza, the government approved the reintroduction of the death penalty, as well as the suppression of all antifascist newspapers and periodicals, the institution of police confinement of suspects without evidence, and the creation of a special administrative body, the Tribunale speciale per la difesa dello Stato With the regal decree of 6 November, all Italian political parties, except for the National Fascist Party, were suppressed to quash any public dissent and create the conditions for a dictatorship.
On 9 November 1926, the Chamber reopened to ratify the exceptional laws and also to deliberate on the secession of the 123 Aventinian parliamentarians, as well as the dissident journalist Massimo Rocca.[18]
In the first motion, presented by Roberto Farinacci, debated the Aventinians and their parliamentary secession, excluding the communists who had returned to the hall. Augusto Turati then amended the motion to include the communists as well. Due to the previous regal orders, the only opposition members present were the 6 members belonging to the Giolittiana faction: already, the night before, Antonio Gramsci had been arrested, in violation of the parliamentary immunity still in force.[19] Through the motions, it was declared that the Aventinian secessionists had forfeited their seats in the Chamber.
Socialist Filippo Turati successfully fled to Corsica in December 1926 on a motorboat led by Italian antifascist Italo Oxilia, with the help of Carlo Rosselli, Ferruccio Parri, Sandro Pertini.[20] In 1932, he died in exile in Paris. After Gramsci's arrest, he spent 8 years in a Turin prison.
Among the other Aventinian deputies forced into exile were Bruno Buozzi, Arturo Labriolo, Claudio Treves, Guido Picelli, Ruggero Grieco, Emilio Lussu, Cipriano Facchinetti, Eugenio Chiesa, and Mario Bergmano. The socialist Giuseppe Romita, the communist Luigi Repossi, and the republican Cino Macrelli each spent years in jail. Whoever was not imprisoned had to abandon their political life until the fall of fascism.
After the fascist regime fell, the Constituent Assembly of Italy of the new Italian Republic created the Constitution of Italy on 1 January 1948. One article specified the criteria for the "Senators by right" of the first legislature. Other than those elected in the Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, the article added those who were "declared forfeited in the session of the Chamber of 9 November 1926." As a result, 106 senators were nominated, in addition to the 237 selected in the 1948 Italian general election.