Una partita razionale – A rational game
1. Colpo di stato (Coup of State)
When the 1st September of 1939 Nazi Germany declared war on Poland, starting the Second World War, the Italian Fascist government soon proclaimed its stance in the conflict as “Non belligerante” (Non-aggressive) which de facto was a diplomatic camouflage to state Italy for the moment remained outside of the conflict until favorable conditions will be shown to allow the country to participate.
Despite the bold declarations of Benito Mussolini, Duce and dictator of Italy, even he knew the conditions of the military forces of his country were rather poor at least, so with the status of non aggression he hopefully attempted to gain enough time to prepare better the troops at his disposal to enter the conflict and giving it a steering blow; he was convinced of this on the speculation the conflict between Germany from one side and France and Britain from another will soon end in a new war of position, like the First World War.
Still, it was clear Mussolini was progressively intentioned to align Italy to battle on the side of Germany, strong of the past agreements with Hitler which leaded on the stipulation of the so called “Patto d’acciaio” (Steel Pact) which the laying foundation was the enactment of the Anti-Jew racial laws in Italy: decision this one which however left confused many Italians and murmurs in the Vatican as in the Quirinal as well, not counting a relevant part of the ruling establishment.
Naturally, the ones which were not so happy of the racial laws in the Fascist establishment were also the ones which were more on anti-German positions: which included two top gerarchs as Galeazzo Ciano, Foreign affairs minister and son-in-law of Mussolini, and Italo Balbo, governor of the colonial province of Libya. But Ciano was rather mild to oppose the will of his father in law and Balbo, albeit the position he covered was prestigious in itself, in truth was in sort of disgrace as Mussolini sent him in Libya for jealousy. Still, the latter conserved his position in the Great Council of Fascism. Another relevant staunch antagonist of the Ital-German alliance was Dino Grandi, predecessor of Ciano in the foreign affairs and current ambassador in London; position which however was decided by Mussolini still for reason of jealousy, and in the same late 1939 decided to conclude appointing him President of the Chamber of the Corporations the 30th of November, because the Duce feared Grandi could attempt to promote lateral agreements with the British without his consent. It proved however to be a great mistake, because it allowed Grandi to reacquire a seat into the Great Council due of his position, hence favoring the following chain of events.
Mussolini in fact had intention to call a session of the Council for the 7th December, in part to discuss how to prepare the country in front of the conflict, but also to confirm a consistent reshuffling of the Fascist establishment he was intentioned to promote in order to reaffirm his power and consolidate his warmongering position. The most relevant change was the removal of Achille Starace, chairman of the Partito Nazionale Fascista (PNF) with Ettore Muti, highly decorated war hero, through the meddling of Ciano, for various reasons, from his acts of “Fascistizzazione” of the society on certain regards which ended to annoy the population to the verge of ridiculousness, to the intention to reassure part of the public opinion alarmed by certain explicit declarations in favor of Germany; but from certain voices of corridors and certain transcriptions from Ciano’s diaries, common font for the modern historians to define what’s boiling on in the Italian halls of the power at the time, Mussolini decided to remove him when Starace lied to him over a staunch rally of the Italians over the running conflict.
The Duce wasn’t a fool and realized the period of apex in his popularity following the conquest of Etiophia was wearing off, and that the Italians weren’t interested to be involved into a war of great magnitude; which made him become more bitter and frustrated, as believing remaining neutral will be detrimental for Italy as its eventual claims will fall on deaf ears even to presenting itself as a moderator (as it happened for Munich, which increased the international stance of Italy for its diplomatic role despite later Hitler few months later unilaterally disregarded those agreements with the occupation of Czechoslovakia) but above all will butterfly his dreams of an “Italian Empire”.
Not that he was unreasonable like Hitler, in the terms to not completely exclude an agreement with France and Britain in case Germany will pending on the losing side in the end; but Mussolini was still wary towards the Entente because of the issues of the sanctions proclaimed at the time of the war of Ethiopia, and after all his strategic objectives for an Italian expansion were more detrimental for them rather than Germany. Towards France, the major reason of tension were Yugoslavia, former allied of Paris which however remained neutral in the war, and the claims over Tunisia and Dijibuti (excluding Nice, Savoy and Corsica which despite officiously reclaimed from Rome, the Duce knew it will be impossible to reclaim those territories unless of a war); towards Britain, Greece (into the sphere of London), Malta, their chunk of Somalia and Yemen were issues which generated incomprehension between the two countries.
Ciano tried to convince Mussolini of the possibility to obtain satisfaction behind diplomatic work at pact to keep Italy out of the war, but the Duce wasn’t convinced. To the growing sense of anxiety and uncertainty among certain part of the establishment there was the fear Mussolini in the end could decide to enter by only his own decision into the conflict, bypassing the eventual decision of the Great Council – and voices were running over the fact the dictator after the 7th of December will freeze indefinitely the assembly to be the only one to decide of the future of Italy; insinuations which brought the anti-German and anti-war faction to move quickly in a so short period of time.
It was Grandi, from the 3rd of December, to start everything. His role as president of the Chamber of Corporation was not influential or relevant in the national affairs, Mussolini hoped so to keep him contained, but the former was intentioned to prevent at all cost to bring Italy into a conflict which could prove to be disastrous for the entire nation. At the same time, Grandi from one side developed positions more moderate into the Fascist movement, while he became more bitter towards Mussolini for the way he was treated in the past, and honestly wished to see him removed from his position.
Grandi could count over the active support of the Savoia dynasty (he had their trust and the possibility to talk freely without Mussolini’s meddling, being prized of the “Collare dell’Annunziata” which made him a honorary parent of the King), apprehensive over the direction Mussolini was leading the country: Vittorio Emanuele III was conflicted over a possible peaceful removal of Mussolini, he feared the consequences should Grandi will fail, but he reluctantly agree under the pressures of his son Umberto and his daughter-in-law Maria Josè, who was worried over the possibility Hitler to invade France could readopt a revised version of the Schiefflen plan so attacking Belgium as in the past war; which will have put Italy in a more difficult position by keeping a more active stance towards Germany. As for Umberto, generally his support was explained by the historians with the personal motivation he wanted a reign which felt close enough to inherit from his father due to his advanced age without being forced to become king under the shadow of Mussolini, and Grandi offered him a golden occasion to reinstate a part of the royal authority in relation with the Fascist organization.
Through the support of the Savoia, Grandi made action of pressures towards Ciano, conflicted as well, but in the end agreed to “stab in the back” his father-in-law when Balbo, arrived in Rome for the imminent session of the council, agreed immediately to join the plot ( as Grandi, had reason of bitterness towards Mussolini), while Umberto di Savoia made further pressures recalling him to his duties towards the crown as a noble. As the four made private arrangements, it was agreed in the end Balbo will become the next president of the council of ministers, so the new head of government, while Grandi and Ciano will retain their current roles. Ciano naturally had ambitions to succeed to Mussolini, but he feared the possible consequences should the fire will backfire – and should things went bad, at least he hoped to count over the support of his wife Edda, Mussolini’s older daughter and the most influential sibling to him, to appease the possible wrath of his father-in-law. Still, he didn’t told her nothing about the plot. At the same time, if the plot succeed but Balbo failed to be adapt to the role in the time, he could always try to take his place.
At the same time, Grandi was unlikely to be proposed as successor, being the one behind the plot, while it was refused Umberto’s attempt to propose a more “neutral” candidate like a high ranked army officer, such as Pietro Badoglio, but the plotting gerarchs refused, because they wanted to avoid the possible risk of a military dictatorship or an excessive shifting of power in favor of the Crown, as after all their intention was to remove Mussolini, not the Fascist structure.
Discussions are still open today if the Vatican was conscious of that attempt. As far as it is known, it seems Pius XII was informed through his channels in the Quirinale, and that approved any solution which could have prevented a conflict for Italy; but the meddling of the Holy See seemed to be remain minimal, limited to the concession of certain places (monasteries, oratories) to better favor the meeting of the plotters.
The idea of the plotters was to put Mussolini in minority with a motion voted within the Great Council, forcing him to dismiss from his position. While the OVRA (the Fascist secret police) didn’t have reason to investigate about suspicious movements of members of the inner circle of the Duce, Mussolini himself wasn’t aware of those Roman meetings, or if certain voices came to him, he didn’t give them proper attention. Mussolini made the Great Council a constitutional organ of the Kingdom in relation of his intention to build a “one party ruled” country, but incidentally gave it faculty to overthrow his decision at any moment, as being the decisional body of the Fascist machine (in certain way being a sort of Fascist Politburo); but, naturally he never considered the idea the gerarchs arriving to cover their position because of him, could ever betray him one day.
The session of the Great Council of the 7th December 1939 was frantic at least. As Mussolini expressed his intentions to reduce the window of expectation for an Italian intervention in the war of a least a year ( as he initially proposed 1943 to Hitler, now he was going to put the deadline for 1942 – and probably was intentioned to further lower gradually the period of neutrality), intervened quite vehemently Balbo (notoriously known for being the less servant of the gerarchs towards Mussolini and quite frank to express his opinion) stating how everyone in the council knew the poor conditions of the Italian army and that the country wasn’t unable to hold a war against France and Britain in the Mediterranean or in Africa, talking from the height of his experience as commander of the colonial forces in Libya (stated around 200,000 against the 60,000 British stationed in Egypt ar the time, but scarcely equipped to fight against their potential adversary) and as a former minister of the air forces (reclaiming that the Italian technological advantage in that edge during the twenties was eaten away while he reclaimed more efforts for the development of the airdrop compartment and the realization of air carriers, finding unreasonable the principle of “Italy as natural Mediterranean air carrier”). Soon a quite heated debate started between Pro-Germans and Anti-Germans, to the point were thrown in discussion the contested racial laws; but when Mussolini was intentioned to restore order (he allowed the debate and appreciated the growing disorder in order to present himself as the final moderator and deus-ex-machina to restore calm then imposing his decisions) then Grandi proposed a motion requesting that nobody, not even the head of government, could assume the command of the Italian armed forces in name of the King without previous consensus of the same ruler, and still to give the King the last war in matter of declaration of war to another country. In that way, he attempted to bar the Royal prerogatives over those matters to the same Mussolini; Grandi didn’t made negative opinions over Mussolini, but he simply stated it was better to keep count of the matured experience of the King in matter, and to prevent an imbalance of the current status quo in the country.
Mussolini was caught off guard, and attempted to stall the vote to gain time and refreshing his mind to understand what’s really going on; but soon he started to lose control over the Council were gerarchs undeniably loyal to him or to be seen as "radical" in their views like Roberto Farinacci, Giuseppe Bottai and Starace (appointed to the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, or MVSN, more known as “blackshirts” for their uniform and being the Fascist party militia, albeit integrated into the Italian armed forces), accusing Grandi of treason and “to being a friend of the Jew cabal”; then confusion was unavoidable and the meeting went into early night with accusations and insults from both sides: but the plotters managed during the moments of pause to drag on their side uncertain members of the Council, such as Ettore Muti and Emilio Bono, one of the “quadriumviri” of the “March on Rome”, impressed somewhat by the violence of the pro-Germans and the failure of Mussolini to restore order. Near to midnight, in the end the motion was finally put in vote, along with a side amendment which confirmed the non aggressive stance of Italy, and passed with strict measure, however enough to state since the institution and constitutional integration of the assembly, that Mussolini was put in minority inside the Fascist movment. Algid the Duce replied that it “was provoked the fall of the current government”, and left Palazzo Venezia to decide what to do next.
Honestly, the Duce believed it was a political internal move to contest his decisions in foreign policy and pushing him to remain more "calm" to his alignment towards Hitler, and that in the end the ones who voted to put him in minority will never attempt to replace him, so he decided to ask a meeting with the King to ask him to reconfirm his role as head of government so reaffirming his authority. He was encouraged to do so considering it wasn’t given yet public announcement of the deliberations of the Great Council, he was sure eventual and inopportune leaks will be properly censured, so to allow himself to being fully reinstated in his prerogatives with the royal recognition as nothing happened.
Vittorio Emanuele III accepted to encounter him in the morning of the 9th December, he was correct with Mussolini receiving his resignations, but he left him speechless when he announced he refused to confirm again his mandate. Mussolini left the Royal rooms bitterly, but he failed to leave the Quirinale as a free man, as a group of carabineers approached him inviting to follow them for his own security from the moment he didn’t cover any official role in the government.
De facto, Benito Mussolini, decayed dictator of Italy, was put under house arrest, and escorted to his private residence in Villa Torlonia.
In the late evening of that day, the main journals of the peninsula came out (or properly informed to say so) with an extraordinary issue declaring that Mussolini accepted to dismiss "voluntarily" from his role as head of government (but retaining still the title of Duce among with the other honorific ones) after receiving a negative motion of confidence, and consequently retiring into private life, giving to the “new generation of Fascists” the duty to lead Italy in so dire times. Naturally it was given emphasis on the fact Mussolini was like a father which will continue to give his precious advices to the entire country when required albeit now he needed to rest properly to recover from seventeen years of government.
Due to Mussolini’s resignation, Vittorio Emanuele declared Italo Balbo, current governor of Libya, to become the new president of the council of ministers of the Kingdom of Italy. In a side article, it was reported the first enacted decrees by Balbo, about the replacement of Starace from head of the MVSN, now leaded by De Bono, while Muti for the moment was confirmed as chairman of the PNF...
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