There is a fact which is rapidly transforming the essence of Fascismo. The Fascista Party, on one side, becomes a Militia, and, on the other, becomes an administration and a Government. It is incredible what a change the head of a “squadra” undergoes when he becomes an alderman or a mayor. He understands that it is not possible to attack abruptly the Communal Budgets without preparation, but that it is necessary to study them and devote himself to the administrative part, which is a hard, dry, and difficult task. (Applause.) And as the communes conquered by Fascisti number now several thousands, you will conclude that the transformation of Fascismo into an organ of administration is taking place and will be soon an accomplished fact.
Liberty must not be converted into Licence, and Licence I shall never grant! You ask: “When will this moral pressure of Fascismo end?” I understand that you are anxious about it. It is natural, but it depends on you. You know that I should be happy to-morrow to have in my Government the direct representatives of the organised working classes. I would like to have them with me; I would like also to entrust them with a Ministry which requires delicate handling, so as to convince them that the administration of the State is a thing of the utmost complexity and difficulty, that there is little to improvise, that tabula rasa must not be made, as in some revolutions, because afterwards it is necessary to rebuild. You cannot take a corporal of the division of Petrograd and make of him a general, because afterwards you have to call in a Brusiloff! (Comment.) To sum up, so long as opponents exist who, instead of resigning themselves to the fait accompli, contemplate a reactionary movement, we cannot disarm. But I say further that the last experience after your attempt at the strike of last year must also have convinced you by now that that road will lead you to ruin; whilst, on the other hand, you ought to take into account, once and for all, if you have in your veins a little Marxist doctrine, that there is a new situation, to which (if you are intelligent and watch over the interests of the classes you say you represent) you should conform. And, moreover, Colombino, who is a friend of Ludovico d’Aragona, can say if I am an enemy of the working classes. I dare him to deny my statement that six thousand workmen belonging to the Italian Metallurgic Consortium work to-day because I helped them and because I did my duty as citizen and head of the Italian Government. (Comment and assent.)
But liberty, Gentlemen, must not be converted into licence. What they ask for is licence, and this I shall never grant! (Loud applause and comment.) You can, if you wish, organise and march along in processions and I shall have you escorted. But if you intend to throw stones at the carabineers or to pass through a street where it is forbidden to do so, you will find the State which opposes you, if necessary by force. (Loud applause on the Right: comment on the Left.)
Close Analysis of the Electoral Reform Bill. But this Electoral Law which harasses us so much: is it really a monster? I declare it to you that, were it a monster, I should like to hand it over at once to a museum of monstrosities. (Laughter.) This law, of which I have traced the fundamental lines, but which afterwards has been successively elaborated by my friend the Hon. Acerbo, and re-elaborated by the Commission, I do not know whether for better or for worse,—(Much laughter.)—is a creation, and, like all creations of this world, has its qualities and defects. One must not condemn it as a whole; it would be a great mistake.
You must consider—I say this to you with absolute frankness—that it is a law for us;—(Comments.)—but it involves principles which are ultra-democratic—that of the State election schedule; that of the national constituency, which was the vindication of Socialism, as just now Constantino Lazzari recalled. You say that the struggle is impersonal, that the elections will cause unrest. But who tells you that the elections are near? (Laughter: prolonged comments.) The working of this law is such that a fourth part of the seats is guaranteed to the minorities, while I think that, calling the elections by the present law, the minorities would, perhaps, be further sacrificed. (Assent and comment.) At any rate the impersonality of the struggle withholds from the same struggle that character of harshness which might preoccupy from the point of view of public order. As things stand to-day, elections held on the uninominal constituency or even on the proportional basis would certainly lead to excesses. (Assent.)
The Government cannot accept Conditions. Either you give it your Confidence or deny it. I declare that I shall not call elections until I am sure that they will be held in independence and order. (Comment and applause.) I add that while on principle I am, and I must be, intransigent, I entrust myself, in a certain sense, as regards technical discussion, to the competent elements. In this hall there are very many competent elements. They will say how this law can be even more abused or improved. (Comment.) But this is the business of the Chamber, and the Government declares to you that it does not refuse to accept those improvements which would render easier the exercise of the right to vote.
This concerns in a certain sense the Popular Party, which must decide for itself. I have spoken plainly, but I must say not as plainly as has been spoken from those benches. The Government cannot accept conditions. Either you give it your confidence or you deny it. (Assent and comment.)
On your Vote will depend in a certain sense your Fate! I agree with all the speakers who have declared that the country wishes only to be left alone; to work in peace with discipline. And my Government makes enormous efforts to achieve this result and will go on, even if it has to strike its own followers, because, having wished for a strong State, it is only just that we should be the first to experience the consequences of strength. (Loud applause.) I have also the duty of telling you—and I tell you from a debt of loyalty—that on your vote depends in a certain sense your fate! Do not delude yourselves, even in this field, because nobody gets out of the Constitution—neither I nor the others—as nobody can suppose that he is not amply guaranteed according to the spirit and the letter of the Constitution. (Comment.) And then, if things are thus, I tell you, take into account this necessity. Do not let the country have once again the impression that Parliament is far from the soul of the nation and that this Parliament, after having manœuvred for an entire week in a campaign of opposition, has achieved sterile results at the end. Because this is the moment in which Parliament and country can be reconciled. But if this chance is lost, to-morrow will be too late, and you feel it in the air, you feel it in yourselves. And then, Gentlemen, do not hang on political labels, do not stiffen yourselves in the formal coherence of the parties, do not clutch at bits of straw, as do the shipwrecked in the ocean, hoping vainly to save themselves. But listen to the secret and solemn warning of your conscience; listen also to the incoercible voice of the nation!
(The last words of the speech of the Hon. Mussolini, which had been listened to all through with the greatest attention by the Assembly and the Tribunes, are greeted by frantic, repeated applause by the benches of the Right, by the Centre and by many Deputies of the Democratic Left. The ovation lasts for a long time and is intensified by that paid by all the Tribunes.
When the applause is over, all the members of the Government shake hands with the President of the Council, while from the benches of the Right all the Deputies come down to congratulate the Hon. Mussolini, amongst them the Hon. Fera, ex-Minister of Justice, and the ex-Prime Ministers, the Hon. Giolitti, the Hon. Salandra, the Hon. Orlando, and the President of the Chamber, the Hon. De Nicola, who exclaims: “It is the finest speech in the annals of Parliamentary history.”)