How could I, after a success—let me say that without false or ridiculous modesty—after a success so clamorous that it was admitted by all the Chamber, opposition included, a success because of which the Chamber opened again the next Wednesday in a good atmosphere, how could I think, without being struck with mad extravagance, to order, I won’t say a murder, but even the slightest, the most petty offense against that very adversary whom I esteemed because he had a certain courage which looked like my courage, and an obstinacy which appeared like my obstinacy in sustaining a thesis?
They have the minds of crickets who pretend that I was making only cynical gestures on that occasion. Such gestures are the last to be tolerated by me; they are repugnant to the very depths of my conscience. And I feel as strongly against the show of strength.
What strength? Against whom? With what aim? When I think about that, Gentlemen, I remember those strategists who, during the War, while we were eating in the trenches, made strategy with little pins on the maps. But when the problem is to get something done at the place of command and responsibility, things are seen in another light and have a different appearance. And yet on enough occasions, I have proved my energy. I have usually not failed to meet events.
I have settled in six hours a revolt of the Royal Guards. In a few days I have broken an insidious revolt. In forty-eight hours I brought a division of Infantry and half of the fleet to Corfu. These gestures of energy—and the last one amazed even one of the greatest generals of a friendly Nation—are cited here to demonstrate that it is not energy that fails me.
The death punishment? But that is a joke, Gentlemen! First of all, the death punishment must be inflicted under the penal code and, in any case, capital punishment cannot be the reprisal of a Government!
It must be inflicted with restrained, better let us say very restrained, judgment, when the question is the life of a citizen. It was at the end of that month which is carved deeply into my life, that I said, “I want peace for the Italian people and I want to re-establish normal political life.”
What was the answer to this policy of mine? First of all the secession of the Aventino—anti-constitutional secession, clearly revolutionary! Then a campaign of the press which lasted throughout the months of June, July and August. A dirty, miserable campaign which dishonored us for three months. The most fantastic, the most terrifying, the most frightful lies were affirmed extensively in the press.
Investigations of underground happenings were also made; they invented things, they knew they were lying, but it was done all the same! I have always been peaceful and calm amid the storm. That storm will be remembered by those who will come after us with a sense of intimate shame. On September eleventh, somebody wanted to revenge a killing and shot one of our best men. He died poor—he had sixty lires in his pocket. But I continue my effort to normalize. I repress illegalities. I state the bare truth when I say that even now in our jails there are hundreds and hundreds of Fascists.
It is the bare truth when I recall to you that I reopened the Parliament on the fixed date and that the discussion covered, with no lack of regularity, almost all the budgets.
It is the bare truth that that oath of which you know is taken by the Militia and that the nomination of all the generals for all the zone commands is conducted as it is.