In the city of Parma Picelli, together with his brother Vittorio led a united anti-fascist front consisting of communists, anarchists, socialists and republicans.
On May 1, 1924, he was arrested a fifth time as a parliamentarian for displaying a large red flag from the balcony of the Chamber of Deputies to protest against the anticipation of Labor Day to April 21.
On November 9, 1931, he was freed and from Rome, he moved to Milan with an authorization from the head of the police Arturo Bocchini, where he married his partner Paolina Rocchetti.
[4] Picelli became a critic of the political purges within among whose victims were Italian communists, including Dante Corneli, his emigration companion who was accused of Trotskyism.
Eventually becoming a suspect himself, in March 1935 he was first fired from school, losing both the vouchers to buy food and the salary to pay the rent and finally he was sent to a factory.
[4] Feeling in grave danger Picelli requested the intervention of Palmiro Togliatti with an autograph letter dated 9 March 1935, and kept in the archives of the Comintern.
[5] July 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out and Picelli requested to be allowed to leave the Soviet Union, to fight Francoist forces.
[5] Picelli left the Soviet Union in October 1936 and reached Paris, where he made contact with Julián Gorkin of the POUM, an anti-Soviet communist party.
He reached Barcelona and the communist leaders sent him a friend of his, Ottavio Pastore with the task of making him desist from taking command of a battalion of the POUM.