Matteotti Crisis

Matteotti Crisis, political confrontation between liberals and the Fascist government of Italy after the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti, a Socialist opposition deputy, by Fascist thugs in June 1924. The crisis had threatened to bring about the downfall of Fascist leader Benito Mussolini but instead ended with Mussolini as the absolute dictator of Italy.

On May 30, 1924, Matteotti had spoken in the Chamber of Deputies against the Fascist use of violence in the parliamentary elections. When the news of his kidnapping spread in early June, the Italian public had no doubt that Fascists were implicated in the crime and reacted against Fascist rule. Fascist party badges disappeared overnight, and the antechamber of Mussolini’s office, usually full, stood empty.

The opposition deputies withdrew from the Chamber, in an action known as the Aventine secession, to protest the murder and to work for the overthrow of Mussolini. But the parliamentary forces, which had been powerless before in the events leading to Mussolini’s seizure of power in 1922, proved ineffective in keeping public opinion aroused and failed to take decisive action against Mussolini.

Mussolini, at first taken aback by his loss of public favour, decided to take the offensive. On Jan. 3, 1925, in a speech to the Chamber of Deputies, he took full responsibility for the murder as head of the Fascist party (although whether he gave a direct order for the murder remains uncertain) and dared his critics to prosecute him for the crime, a challenge that never was made since they were too weak to take it up.

The Matteotti Crisis marked a turning point in the history of Italian fascism. Mussolini abandoned any plan of working with parliament and took steps to create a totalitarian state, including suppression of the opposition press, exclusion of non-Fascist ministers, and formation of a secret police.