Italian irredentism in Switzerland was a political movement that promoted the unification toItaly of the Italian-speaking areas ofSwitzerland during theRisorgimento.
The currentItalian Switzerland belonged to theDuchy of Milan until the16th century, when it became part ofSwitzerland. These territories have maintained their nativeItalian population speaking theItalian language and theLombard language, specifically theTicinese dialect. In the early 19th century the ideals of unification in a single Nation of all the territories populated by Italian speaking people created theItalian irredentism. Italian irredentism in Switzerland was based on moderateRisorgimento ideals, and was promoted by Italian-Ticinese such as Adolfo Carmine.[1]
Following the rise to power ofItalian Fascism, however, the initial moderate irredentism started to change to one full of aggression: the sameBenito Mussolini created in the early 1930s thePartito Fascista Ticinese (Ticino Fascist Party).[2] The main ideal of this party was to bring the Italian frontier up to theGottardo Pass (Catena mediana delle Alpi[3]) in the Alps through political unrest and possible referendums (supported, in case of need, by the Italian Army).[4]
In 1934 the Ticino fascists held the "March on Bellinzona", similar to theMarch on Rome. However, it was successfully contrasted by socialist organizations, like "Liberi e Svizzeri" of Guglielmo Canevascini, promoted even by the Swiss government.[5]
Successively, in the1935 elections the fascists obtained just 2% of the votes and since then their movement faded away to less than 100 members.[6]
BeforeWorld War II the Italian irredentism in Switzerland was reduced to have followers mainly between the descendants of Italians emigrated to Ticino at the end of the 19th century, but was ruled and promoted by a small group of ticino intellectuals with their active newspapers and propaganda.
The most important of these intellectuals was Teresina Bontempi, who created the magazineL'Adula. She denounced in her writings, together with Rosetta Colombi, thegermanization of Canton Ticino promoted by the Swiss government.[7] Indeed, the German-speaking population in Canton Ticino went from 2.6% in 1837 to 5.34% in 1920 and nearly 10% in 1940. As a consequence of this political activity she was involved in continuous problems with the Swiss government, that finally jailed her in 1936.[8] She was forced to move to Italy as a political refugee after some months.
The most renowned fascist born in Canton Ticino was Aurelio Garobbio, who tried to imitateGabriele D'Annunzio with his organization calledGiovani Ticinesi.[9] After 1935 Garobbio was the main responsible of the Italian irredentism in Switzerland and was with Mussolini until his death in spring 1945, when he tried to organize a last fascist area of defense inValtellina next to Ticino.[10]
After World War II, the Italian irridentism movement in Switzerland ceased, replaced by organisations advocating a defense of the Italian language and culture within the Swiss Confederation.
