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Ivanoe Bonomi | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Prime Minister of Italy | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 18 June 1944 – 21 June 1945 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | Victor Emmanuel III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Lieutenant General | The Prince of Piedmont | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Palmiro Togliatti Giulio Rodinò | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Pietro Badoglio | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Ferruccio Parri | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 4 July 1921 – 26 February 1922 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Monarch | Victor Emmanuel III | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Giovanni Giolitti | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Luigi Facta | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | (1873-10-18)18 October 1873 Mantua, Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Died | 20 April 1951(1951-04-20) (aged 77) Rome, Italy | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | PSI (1893–1912) PSRI (1912–1922) PDL (1943–1948) PSDI (1948–1951) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ivanoe Bonomi (Italian pronunciation:[iˈvaːnoeboˈnɔːmi];[2] 18 October 1873 – 20 April 1951) was an Italian politician and journalist who served asPrime Minister of Italy from 1921 to 1922 and again from 1944 to 1945.
Ivanoe Bonomi was born inMantua, Italy, in a bourgeois family. He studied natural sciences at theUniversity of Bologna and graduated in 1896. After working for two years as a high school teacher he also completed a law degree in the same university.
In 1893, influenced by the burgeoningcooperative movement, the spread ofMarxist propaganda in the Mantuan countryside, and meetings with socialist leaders likeFilippo Turati,Leonida Bissolati, andAnna Kuliscioff, he joined theItalian Socialist Party (at the time called Italian Socialist Workers' Party). In August 1894 he attended the Socialist congress for theLombardy region, which was held in semi-clandestine fashion due to the repressive measures taken by Prime MinisterFrancesco Crispi. In November he was sentenced to 75 days of internal exile for his political activities.
From the beginning he heldreformist views and advocated forrevisionist positions, including an alliance between theproletariat and thepetite bourgeoisie in defense of democratic institutions. In 1896 he proposed that the Party should endorse liberal, bourgeois candidates inrun-off elections, and claimed that the main task of the working class was the transformation of Italy into a modernbourgeois democracy before socialism could be established. In spite of early calls for fullland collectivization eventually he moved towards more moderate solutions, like the voluntary creation ofcooperatives, in agriculture as well. He was critical of the decision to call thegeneral strike of September 1904, but nonetheless collaborated withrevolutionary syndicalists for the duration of the strike.
Internationally he supported other reformists likeEduard Bernstein,Alexandre Millerand, andJean Jaurès.
In 1907 he was elected to thecity council of Rome and was a member of the city government for one year. In the1909 general elections he was elected to theChamber of Deputies in the constituency of Mantua. During this time he was a strong advocate of support forGiovanni Giolitti, a liberal reformer, since he felt that this would allow Socialists to influence and contribute to progressive developments like the proposed introduction ofuniversal suffrage. His positions, however, continued to remain a minority within the Socialist Party even if at this time the main leader was Turati, himself a reformist. In 1911 Bonomi dissented again with the party line by writing articles expressing lukewarm support for theinvasion of Libya. In March 1912 he, along with other members of the right-wing of the Socialist Party, took the unprecedented move of meeting KingVictor Emmanuel III to express their relief for the failure of an anarchist assassination attempt. This finally prompted his expulsion at the party congress held that year, where the more radical faction gained majority control.
Those who had been expelled founded theItalian Reformist Socialist Party (PSRI), which won 3.92% of the vote and 19 seats in the1913 elections.
The PSRI supportedItaly's entry into World War I and gave vital support to the nationalist government led byAntonio Salandra. When Italy declared war onAustria-Hungary in May 1915, Bonomi volunteered in the Army and was sent to thefront as a sub-lieutenant in the7th Alpini Regiment, taking part in the fighting. In June 1916 he was appointed Minister of Public Works in theBoselli cabinet and held this position for twelve months, until his resignation due to disagreements on domestic policy. He would hold the same Ministry a second time in theOrlando cabinet from January to June 1919. In the war's aftermath he wasMinister of War (March 1920 – April 1921) and then briefly Minister of the Treasury under Prime MinistersFrancesco Saverio Nitti and Giolitti.[3]
A few months later, he becamePrime Minister of Italy for the first time, in acoalition government, the outgoing Minister of War, a politician with guaranteed contact with the army and an independent ex-reformist socialist, who had publicly welcomed the spread of Fascism in his home province of Mantua.[4] Early in 1922, his government collapsed, and he was replaced as prime minister byLuigi Facta, amidst theFascist insurgency led byBenito Mussolini.
With the consolidation of theFascist regime, Bonomi withdrew from political life. In the following years he devoted himself to historical research, publishing a number of articles onGiuseppe Mazzini and the1849 Roman Republic, and working on a history of Italian politics from 1870 to 1918, which would only be published in 1944.
Towards the end of 1942, as Italy was facing military setbacks on many fronts inWorld War II and growing political dissent at home, he reprised clandestine contacts with anti-fascists from various political parties. He also began the publication of the underground newspaperla Ricostruzione.
On 2 June 1943, he had a private audience with KingVictor Emmanuel III where he proposed Mussolini's dismissal, the appointment of a military government, and the denunciation of thealliance with Nazi Germany. The sovereign did not act on this proposal. During the same month Bonomi had other meetings withMaria José, Princess of Piedmont, and the heir apparent, PrinceUmberto II, suggesting the appointment of MarshalPietro Badoglio as prime minister with himself as his deputy, with the goals of ending both the Fascist dictatorship and the alliance withAdolf Hitler. While by this time Victor Emmanuel had become essentially supportive of the same plan, the King preferred a different solution centered on some leaders of the Armed Forces as well as dissenters within the Fascist Party, which meant that Bonomi was not involved in the planning ofMussolini's dismissal and arrest on 25 July.[3]
After thefall of Fascism in July 1943, Bonomi attended a number of anti-fascist meetings which asked the new government led by Badoglio to disband Fascist organizations, release political prisoners, and restore the free press.
On 9 September, the day after thearmistice of Cassibile was announced, six anti-fascist parties agreed to form aNational Liberation Committee (CLN), chaired by Bonomi, to lead theItalian resistance movement. The member parties were theItalian Communist Party, theItalian Socialist Party, theAction Party, theChristian Democracy, theItalian Liberal Party, and Bonomi's ownLabour Democratic Party. While Rome was under German control Bonomi hid in the area of theArchbasilica of Saint John Lateran, under the protection ofPope Pius XII.
As president of the CLN Bonomi sought to steer discussion away from suggestions that the monarchy should be deposed or that the King should abdicate. Relations with the royal government, which had taken refuge in the Allied-controlled South, were a major point of friction. Communists, Socialists and Actionists saw Victor Emmanuel III as complicit with Fascism and responsible for the disastrous wartime situation due to his attitude during both Mussolini's rise and the nearly twenty years of dictatorship, and demanded his immediate departure. Christian Democrats and Liberals preferred to delay any discussion on the form of government to the end of the war, seeing the monarchy as a factor of legitimacy and national unity. Bonomi was also particularly concerned with suppressing any revolutionary aspirations on part of the leftist parties and pursuing the restoration of pre-Fascist liberal democracy. These discussions eventually led him to resign from his post on 24 March 1944. He would return as soon as 5 May, after Communist Party secretaryPalmiro Togliatti, who had just returned from exile, unexpectedly endorsed the moderate position.[3] Around the same timeEnrico De Nicola also brokered a compromise solution where Victor Emmanuel would delegate his powers to the more palatable Prince Umberto, which the King accepted reluctantly.[5]
On 8 June, two days after theliberation of Rome, Badoglio and representatives of CLN parties, withNoel Mason-MacFarlane as representative of the Allies, agreed that Bonomi would become prime minister. He was sworn in on 18 June, initiating his second stint as prime minister in thesecond Bonomi government. The government was seated at first in the Southern city ofSalerno and then, from mid-July, in Rome. Bonomi also held the positions ofMinister of the Interior and Minister for Italian Africa (at the time under Allied occupation) and, until December 1944,Minister of Foreign Affairs.[6] His appointment was taken without the knowledge ofBritish Prime MinisterWinston Churchill, who considered Badoglio a safer choice and had Mason-MacFarlane dismissed over this decision. Mason-MacFarlane, on his part, agreed with the American viewpoint that Badoglio was too discredited to continue serving and that his association with Fascism would weaken the Italian monarchy.[7]
The main issues facing the new government were the prosecution of the war until the liberation of Italy from German occupation, as well as the practical implementation of various compromises that had been previously agreed on in principle. As prime minister, Bonomi formally recognized thepartisan forces operating in the North as part of the war effort, and organized them under aunified command led by Army generalRaffaele Cadorna Jr., who was parachuted in the occupied areas. He also approved a decree which provided for the election of aConstituent Assembly after the end of the conflict. Continuing disputes on royal prerogatives and on the extent of purges of Fascist sympathisers within the state bureaucracy, however, led him to resign on 25 November. The ensuing government crisis, which saw bothCarlo Sforza (who was vetoed by the British over his republican sympathies)[8] andMeuccio Reuini being considered as potential prime ministers, was solved with the re-appointment of Bonomi, who offered the position of deputy prime minister to the Christian Democracy and the Communist Party. The Socialist and Action parties chose not to take part in the new cabinet of thethird Bonomi government.
In the last months of war he recognized the authority of theCLNAI (a subsidiary organ of the CLN operating in Northern Italy) in case of a general insurrection, and approved decrees concerning the establishment of aprovisional legislative body and the organization of a futurereferendum on the form of government and general elections for the Constituent Assembly.[3] He also passed reforms in social security, increasing payments to people with lower pensions.[9]
With the end of the war in Europe Bonomi started facing more frequent criticism over his personality and actions in the pre-Fascist era, particularly from politicians who had been living underground in the occupied areas and were close to the partisan movement. Therefore, he resigned on 21 June 1945.
After his successor Ferruccio Parri resigned in December 1945 Liberals tried to propose Bonomi as prime minister, and then again the following year as a Minister inAlcide De Gasperi's cabinet, but unsuccessfully.[3]
In June 1946 he was elected to the Constituent Assembly in the list of theNational Democratic Union, an alliance between the Liberal Party and the Labour Democratic Party. He chaired the Assembly's Treaties Committee.[10] He also attended the preliminary conference for the adoption of thepeace treaty with the Allies, in Paris, as a member of the Italian delegation.[11]
In 1948 he became a member by right[12] of theItalian Senate. He was elected as itspresident, the first after the establishment of the Republic, and served in that position until his death. He joined the newly establishedItalian Socialist Workers' Party (later known as the Italian Democratic Socialist Party), where he held the honorary position of president.
He died on 20 April 1951 inPalazzo Giustiniani, Rome, the official residence of the President of the Senate, aged 77.
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