Great success for the commemoration of Giacomo Matteotti, promoted yesterday by the Uilp and the association of the rights of the elderly of Terni, at the Cesvol headquarters. On that occasion, the events that led the King of Italy to choose Benito Mussolini as head of Government and to open twenty years of deprivation of freedom, persecution of democrats to whatever party they belonged to and wars were retraced. Andrea Giardi remembered some persecuted anti-fascists – in addition to Giacomo Matteotti, Filippo Turati, Giuseppe Saragat, Pietro Nenni, socialists – Giovanni Amendola and Benedetto Croce liberals, Giovanni Conti and Randolfo Pacciardi republicans, Don Luigi Sturzo popular, Antonio Gramsci and Umberto Terracini communists, Carlo and Nello Rosselli of Justice and Freedom.
The order to proceed against Matteotti was given directly by Mussolini who cynically received the wife of the socialist deputy to assure her that every effort would be made to track him down when he already knew of the assassination. Mauro Scarpellini recalled Matteotti’s educational path, which started from the bottom in defense of the poor, farmers, workers; he was a trade unionist, municipal councilor and Mayor. Scarpellini quoted the journalist Fabio Martini who denounced the boycott of the commemorations, foreseen by a law proposed by Senator Liliana Segre, voted unanimously in July 2023 by Parliament but whose application was regulated so late that it did not allow organize the celebrations foreseen by the law itself. However, the memory is present in all anti-fascist political and trade union forces and celebrations have been spontaneously promoted in many parts of Italy, like yesterday in Terni. The secretary of the UilP of Umbria, Elisa Leonardi, recalled Matteotti’s value as a trade unionist, always close to the needs of citizens, his teaching and his legacy”.
