Aventine Secession (20th century)
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.
The resulting uproar after the Matteotti murder left Mussolini vulnerable, having been forced to dismiss numerous members of his entourage, including General De Bono, Chief of Police and Head of the MVSN.
No one can remove them as long as the sun of freedom does not dawn, the power of law is restored, and the representation of the people ceases to be the atrocious mockery to which they have reduced it.
The secessionists believed that, before the fascists' link to Matteotti's kidnapping and presumed death became clear, the Italian king would dismiss Mussolini and dissolve the Chamber to call for new elections.
[3] Officer Dumini was arrested on 12 July 1924, at the Roma Termini railway station, as he was preparing to leave for the north of Italy and was brought to the Regina Coeli prison.
Between August and October 1924, some Aventinian leaders, including Giovanni Amendola, seemed to share the militant insurrectional line proposed by antifascist group Italia Libera.
Italia libera secretly brought to Rome an armed group of several thousand men dubbed the "Amici del Popolo" (transl.
On 20 October the communist leader Antonio Gramsci proposed that the Aventinian opposition should form an "anti-parliament" to signal the great distance between the secessionists and a Parliament composed only of fascists.
[6] Filipelli accused policeman Amerigo Dumini, politician Cesare Rossi, general Emilio De Bono, and Benito Mussolini himself for being involved in the killing.
[8] On 8 November, on Amendola's suggestion, a group of the Aventinians created a new, antifascist political party to represent the principles of liberty and democracy—the Unione Nazionale [it].
Recalling Article 47 of the statues of the Chamber that foresaw the possibility of a king's minister being accused by deputies, Mussolini formally asked Parliament to make an indictment against him.
Acting as a high court, the Italian Senate gave a ruling on Emilio De Bono, solicited by Luigi Albertini and other Catholics.
With the king's decree of 5 November, a Testo unico delle leggi di pubblica sicurezza [it], 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 [it].
[18][circular reference] In the first motion, presented by Roberto Farinacci, debated the Aventinians and their parliamentary secession, excluding the communists who had returned to the hall.
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.
Among the other Aventinian deputies forced into exile were Bruno Buozzi [it], Arturo Labriolo, Claudio Treves, Guido Picelli, Ruggero Grieco, Emilio Lussu, Cipriano Facchinetti, Eugenio Chiesa, and Mario Bergmano [it].
