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Alcide De Gasperi and the Fascist Regime, 1924–1929

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Elisa A. Carrillo
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Extract

In May, 1924, the National Council of the Partita Popolare elected Alcide De Gasperi, deputy from Venezia Tridentina and president of the Popolare parliamentary group, as political secretary. This election united for the first time in one mandate the presidency of the parliamentary organization and the party secretaryship. Under De Gasperi the party remained on center moorings, opposing Fascism on constitutional grounds and employing moderate, legal methods. But the struggle was an unequal one. The violence of the Fascists did not abate after their April electoral successes, and the headquarters of the local branches of the Partito Popolare, along with Catholic societies and “White” cooperatives, continued to be objects of squadrist attacks, especially in northern Italy. As an able opponent of Fascism both at Montecitorio and in the Trentino, his homeland, De Gasperi aroused the enmity of Mussolini and his subordinates.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 26 , Issue 4 , October 1964 , pp. 518 - 530
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1964

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References

1 Ministero dell'Interno to Prefect of Trent, May 14, 1924 (Protocollo [hereinafter cited as Protoc] 10983), Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Rome), Ministero dell'Interno, Direzione Pubblica Sicurezza, Affari Generali e Riservati (hereafter cited as ACS, Min. Int., PS, AGR), (1914–1926), 1924, Pacco 98.

2 Guadagnini to Min. Int., May 17, 1924 (Protoc. 12126), ibid.; Richard to Min. Int., Sept. 5, 1924 (Protoc. 22478), ibid

3 Atti parlamentari, Camera dei deputati, XXVII Legislature, Discussione 1, June 7, 1924, p. 254, 06 12, 1924 p. 298Google Scholar.

4 Il Nuovo Trentino, July 8, 1924.

5 Ibid., July 18, 1924.

6 Ibid.

7 “La Parte dei cattolici nelle presente lotte dei partiti politici in Italia,” Civiltà cattolica, LXXV (1924), 297–306Google Scholar.

8 Osservatore Romano, Sept. 10, 1924; Binchy, Daniel, Church and State in Fascist Italy (London, 1941), p. 158Google Scholar.

9 Il Nuovo Trentino, Oct. 16, 1924.

10 Il Popolo d'ltalia, Dec. 17, 18, 25, 1924.

11 Il Nuovo Trentino, Nov. 8, 11, 18, 21, Dec. 23, 1924.

12 Rome, 1953, reprint from 1925 ed.

13 Il Nuovo Trentino, Feb. 24, 1925.

14 Photostat in the possession of Msgr. Giulio Delugan of Trent.

15 Questura of Rome to Min. Int., June 14, 1926 (Protoc. 26887), ACS, Min. Int., PS, Casellario Politico Centrale (hereafter cited as CPC), Busta 55, Fascicolo 2, No. 6775.

16 Guadagnini to Min. Int., June 15, 1926 (Protoc. 27755), ibid.

17 Prefect of Rome to Min. Int., Oct. (n.d.), 1926 (Protoc. 51444), ACS, Min. Int., PS, AGR (1914–1926), 1926, Pacco 87.

18 Mussolini to Prefects of the Kingdom, Aug. 20, 1926 (Protoc. 36013), ibid., 1926, Pacco 85.

19 Zieger, Antonio, Stampa Cattolica Trentina (1848–1926) (Trent, 1960), pp. 220–222Google Scholar.

20 Lucciardi to Min. Int., Nov. 6, 1926, ACS, Min. Int., PS, CPC, Busta 55, Fascicolo 2, No. 6775; Andreotti, Giulio, De Gasperi e il suo tempo (Milan, 1956), pp. 116–117Google Scholar.

21 The party was dissolved, province by province, by the decrees of individual prefects.Rosa, Gabriele De, Storia del Partito Popolare (Bari, 1958), p. 504Google Scholar.

22 Min. Int. to Prefects of the Kingdom, Feb. 15, 1927 (Protoc. 30933). ACS, Min. Int., PS, AGR (1927–1933), 1927. Pacco 108.

23 Andreotti, , op. cit.. p. 119Google Scholar.

24 Min. Int. to Prefects of Milan and Trent and to those on land and sea frontiers, Jan. 11, 1927 (Protoc. 0872), ACS, Min. Int., PS, CPC, Busta 55, Fascicolo 2, No. 6775.

25 In his statement to the police in Rome on March 19, De Gasperi said that he had a dual motive for going to Trieste: recuperation for his wife, who had not been well, and an inquiry into employment opportunities. Statement of Alcide De Gasperi, Regina Coeli Prison, March 19, 1927, ACS, Min. Int., PS, CPC, Busta 55, Fascicolo 2, No. 6775.

26 Bocchini to Prefects of Ancona, Florence, Pisa, Bologna, Tel. No. 9258, March 11, ibid.; Bocchini to Prefect of Zara, Tel. No. 9275, March 11, 1927, ibid.

27 Bocchini to Prefect of Fiume, Tel. No. 9269, March 11, 1927, ibid., Bocchini to Prefects of Venezia and Trieste, Tel. No. 9276, March 11, 1927, ibid.

28 Statement of De Gasperi, Questura of Florence, March 11, 1927, ibid.

29 Mussolini to Bocchini, ibid.

30 Min. Int. Memorandum, March 15, 1927, ibid..

31 Min. Int. Memorandum, March 15, 1927 (Protoc. 06095 R ), ibid.

32 Guido Leto and Giuseppe D'Andrea to Chief of Police, ibid.

33 Also released were Pietro Romani, Francesca's brother, and Augusto De Gasperi, both of whom had been arrested on charges of complicity in De Gasperi's attempted expatriation.

34 Alcide De Gasperi to Francesca, 05 17, 1927, Gasperi, Francesca De, ed., Lettere dalla Prigione (Milan, 1955), p. 30Google Scholar; hereafter cited as LP.

35 De Gasperi to Francesca, May 24, 1927, De Gasperi to Francesca, May 31, 1927, LP, pp. 36, 37–40.

36 Questura of Rome to Min. Int., July 23, 1927, ACS, Min. Int., PS, CPC, Busta 55, Fascicolo 2, No. 6775. De Gasperi's explanation of the forged document was that a friend, whom he refused to identify, had prepared it as a joke, in order to detain him in Rome a little longer.

37 De Gasperi to Francesca, Sept. 15, 1927, LP, p. 87.

38 Jaspar, G., “Un maestro del corporativismo italiano,” Rivista internazionale di scienze e discipline ausiliarie, XXXVII, N.S. 1 (01. 1928), 3–28Google Scholar; “Le direttive politico-religiose del ‘Centro’ Germanico (1871–1928),” ibid., XXXVII, N.S. 2 (August. 1928), 181–196; XXXVII, N.S. 3 (Nov. 1928), 97–132; XXXVIII, N.S. 1 (Feb.–March 1929), 146–156.

39 Jaspar, , “Un maestro…”, p. 14Google Scholar.

40 Ibid., p. 16.

41 Jaspar, , “Le direttive…”., pp. 146–156Google Scholar.

42 De Gasperi to Francesca, Dec. 22, 1927, LP, pp. 101–102.

43 De Gasperi to Ceccolini, Jan. 7, 1928, ibid., p. 103.

44 Interview with Signora Francesca De Gasperi.

45 De Gasperi to Director Gen. PS, Sept. 27, 1928, ACS, Min. Int., PS, CPC, Busta 55, Fascicolo 2, No. 6775.

46 Bocchini to Questor of Rome, Oct. 8, 1928, ibid.

47 De Gasperi to Don Giulio Delugan, n. d. (photostat). Contents indicate that letter was written in the autumn of 1928.

48 Ibid.

49 Ibid.

50 De Gasperi to Don Simone Weber, Jan. 20, 1929. I am grateful to Signora Francesca De Gasperi for showing me her husband's letters to Don Simone Weber, a priest of Trent. For a more detailed analysis of De Gasperi's views on the Lateran Pacts, see my article on “Alcide De Gasperi and the Lateran Pacts” in The Catholic Historical Review, XLIX (01. 1964)Google Scholar.

51 De Gasperi to Don Simone Weber, Feb. 12, 1929.

52 De Gasperi to Don Simone Weber, Feb. 26, 1929.

53 Osservatore Romano, March 13, 1929; De Gasperi to Don Giulio Delugan, March 15, 1929 (photostat).