Our Ministers for foreign affairs ought to know how to play this card too, with the warning: “Be careful; Italy no longer follows a policy of renunciation and cowardice, cost what it may!” So it has come about that while in other countries men are beginning to realise the force represented by Italian Fascismo, in the field of foreign policy our Ministers still remain in a yielding attitude. We are asked what is our programme. I have already answered this question, which was meant to be insidious, at a little meeting held at Levanto in the presence of thirty or forty Fascisti, and I did not think that a little homely speech would have such a vast echo.
Our Programme. The Crisis of the Liberal State. Our programme is simple: we wish to govern Italy. They ask us for programmes, but there are already too many. It is not programmes that are wanting for the salvation of Italy, but men and will-power.
There is not an Italian who does not think that he possesses the one sure method by which the most acute problems of our national life may be solved. But I think you are all convinced that our political class is deficient. The crisis of the Liberal State has proved it. We have made a splendid war from the point of view of collective and individual acts of heroism. From having been soldiers, the Italians, in 1918, became warriors. I beg you to note the essential difference. But our political class carried on the war as if it had been work of ordinary administration. These men whom we all know, and whose very features are familiar to every one of us, now appear men of the past, ruined, tired and beaten.
I do not deny, in my absolute objectivity, that this middle class, which might, with a world-wide title, be called Giolittian, has its merits. It certainly has. But to-day, when Italy is still under the influence of Vittorio Veneto—to-day, when Italy is bursting with life, vigour and passion, these men, who are above all accustomed to Parliamentary mystification, do not appear to us to be big enough for the situation. It is necessary, therefore, to consider how to replace this political class which has of late consistently surrendered to that swollen-headed puppet, Italian Socialism.
I think that this replacement has become necessary, and that the more complete it is the better. Certainly Fascismo, in taking the entire forty-seven millions of Italians under its care, will assume a great responsibility. It is to be foreseen that many will be disappointed, because, in any case, there is always disappointment sooner or later, whether things are accomplished or not.
Friends! Like the life of the individual, the life of the nation brings with it a certain amount of risk. One cannot hope to run for ever on the Decauville track of daily regularity. At a given moment both men and parties must have the courage to shoulder heavy responsibility and to adopt a daring policy. They may succeed; they may fail. But there are also unsuccessful attempts that suffice to ennoble and uplift for all time the soul of a movement such as Italian Fascismo.
The Question of Régime. The Monarchy and Fascismo. I had intended to repeat this speech at Naples, but I think that I shall have other things to deal with there. Do not let us delay, therefore, about entering on the delicate subject of régime.
Many of the controversies which were raised by the question of the nature of my tendencies are forgotten, and everybody is convinced that they were not formed suddenly, but represented a settled idea. It is always like that. Certain attitudes appear improvised to the general public, which is neither fitted nor obliged to follow the slow changes which take place in a restless spirit desirous of making a profound examination of certain problems. But there is inward pain and toil, which is sometimes tragic. You must not think that the heads of Fascismo do not know what this individual, and above all national, travail is.
The much-talked-of republican tendency had to be a kind of attempt at separation from the many elements which had come to us simply because we had won. These elements do not please us. These people who always side with the victor, and who are ready to change their flag with a change of fortune, must be looked upon with suspicion and carefully watched by the Fascisti. Is it possible—here is the question—to bring about a profound transformation in our political régime and to create a new Italy without touching the monarchic system? What is the general attitude of the Fascisti as regards political institutions? Our attitude does not commit us in any sense. In truth, perfect régimes are only to be found in books of philosophy. I think that it would have been disastrous for the Greek city if the theories of Plato had been literally applied. A people content under a republic never dreams of having a king. A people not accustomed to a republic longs to return to a monarchy.
It was in vain that the Germans tried to make the Phrygian cap fit their square heads. The Germans hate a republic, and the fact that it was imposed by the Entente and that it has been a kind of ersatz, is another reason for their hating it. So that, generally speaking, political forms cannot be approved of or condemned for ever, but must be examined from the point of view of their direct relation with the mentality, the economic condition and the spiritual force of any particular people. (A voice cries: “Long live Mazzini!”)