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èStoria 2022 - La marcia su Roma - Lectio di Emilio Gentile — Transcript

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0:17Dear audience, È Storia 2022, the 18th
0:20International History Festival,
0:22welcomes you to the Herodotus tent. The
0:28festival is conceived and organized by
0:30the èStoria Cultural Association,
0:32under the patronage of the Ministry of
0:35Culture, the Municipality of Gorizia,
0:37the Cassa di Risparmio di Gorizia
0:39Foundation, the Venezia Giulia Chamber
0:41of Commerce, the Italian Publishers
0:43Association, the University of Trieste,
0:46and the University of Udine, thanks to
0:48the support of public administrations,
0:50private sponsors, and the friends of
0:53èStoria, whom we invite you to join.
0:56The stage furnishings are kindly
0:58provided by Amoroso of Udine, whom we
1:01thank for their collaboration. The
1:04meeting titled The March on Rome, a
1:06lecture by Emilio Gentile, is about to
1:09begin. The meeting is held with the
1:12support of Ilcam Spa. The event is also
1:16being streamed on the website
1:18www.estoria.it. We remind you that at
1:21the end of the sessions, it will be
1:23possible to purchase the authors 'books
1:25at the author area and meet the guests
1:27at the book-signing stand. Enjoy the
1:30history, everyone. Have a good session.
1:33Thank you. Thank you. I assume you know
1:45that tomorrow is my name day, so you
1:46gave me a round of applause for my
1:48birthday. Thank you. Thank you. I also
1:58suspect you know that I will be given
2:00an extraordinary gift for my name day
2:02here in Gorizia, and I am very proud of
2:04it, but I won't tell you what it is
2:06because you'll find out tomorrow. I
2:11believe there are two of us speaking
2:13here in the Herodotus tent tonight, and
2:14I hope you will be able to hear him as
2:16well as you hear me. Even though the
2:22subject is perhaps less fun than what
2:25you are hearing with your left ear,
2:27with me, you will be forced to listen
2:30with your right ear—but no political
2:32allusion is intended in this reference.
2:35I will try to raise my voice, but I
2:37fear he is much more of a tenor than I
2:39am. We will have a contest and see if,
2:44in the end, you respond to what he said
2:46or what I said. I was entrusted with
2:52the rather difficult task of speaking
2:55about the March on Rome, for the simple
2:57reason that the centenary of the March
3:00on Rome is approaching; many books are
3:03being announced, and therefore, it is
3:06likely that everything I say tonight,
3:08like what I believe is now established
3:11about the March on Rome, will be
3:13refuted. And that is the best thing for
3:19someone who lives as a history scholar
3:22in total ignorance, knowing that
3:27everything they studied over the last
3:3050 years was completely wrong. It can
3:34happen, but I am—I say—a serene
3:37pessimist, because a pessimist doesn't
3:39rejoice if their dark predictions come
3:42true; they rejoice if they don't. And
3:47this is a way to protect oneself from
3:50the disappointments that otherwise
3:52continually accompany an optimist's
3:54predictions. History offers no chance
3:58to be optimistic because, as you are
4:01witnessing these days, it only takes a
4:05small shift in some cell, or some
4:07ambition, or some fear, for what was
4:10thought to be definitively erased—at
4:14least from Central-Eastern Europe,
4:16apart from what happened in the Balkan
4:20Peninsula—to return, and yet, it has
4:23happened. Therefore, it is useless to
4:26make optimistic predictions from a
4:28historical point of view; it is better
4:30to make pessimistic ones, so if
4:32everything then proceeds well, in the
4:34best of all possible worlds, our joy is
4:36boundless. Ours, I don't speak in the
4:39royal we, but of us students of history
4:41. Eh, but the risk is there; the risk
4:45is there because I have been convinced,
4:47and still am until the release of my
4:49next books on the March on Rome, of
4:51certain things. Which, as essential as
4:56it is for the historian to be
4:58Socratically ignorant—otherwise what
5:00is the fun in doing research if there
5:03is no curiosity to discover something
5:06new you didn't know? To correct
5:10something new, to correct something you
5:13were convinced you knew and, above all,
5:15to have the chance to prove to yourself
5:18that the worst historian is the one who
5:21makes predictions in the past and the
5:23one who, knowing how things turned out,
5:26teaches those who were actually doing
5:28those things, without knowing where
5:31they would end up, how they should have
5:33behaved. An example is what we will see
5:37tonight. Of Victor Emmanuel II. I have
5:42never had monarchist sympathies; not
5:45because I didn't aspire, upon being
5:47born, to be a king's son and inherit
5:50the throne—provided it wasn't,
5:52obviously, that of the eve of the
5:54French Revolution—, but because I
5:57never understood why there must be some
6:00who, only due to a random genetic fact,
6:02have all the privileges and also the
6:05burdens of sovereignty, and other poor
6:07people, instead, cannot even leave
6:10their own doorstep because they are not
6:13allowed to see anything more than what
6:15they see by looking at their own
6:17parents and family members. But when I
6:21read everything said about Victor
6:24Emmanuel II, about how he should have
6:28behaved, I ask myself, but it is easy
6:32for us today because we know how things
6:38turned out, the task for those who want
6:41to know history is to know how things
6:43really went. The problem is that the
6:47things themselves do not know how they
6:49went when they went. Whoever did those
6:53things, whoever was doing those things,
6:55whoever was in those things probably
6:57had a vision of what was to happen from
6:59their actions, their choices, their
7:01initiatives, very different from what
7:03then actually happened.
7:09Let's try, if possible, to put
7:11everything known about the March on
7:14Rome in order. And obviously, I am
7:17speaking to those who have some doubts
7:18about what they know regarding the
7:20March on Rome. I am not speaking to all
7:22my colleagues who know everything about
7:23the March on Rome, and half the tent
7:25empties out. Because regarding the
7:31March on Rome, there are still strange,
7:34odd contradictions. Let's consider some
7:37more recent works. The most detailed,
7:42meticulous work, patiently tied to the
7:44reconstruction of facts with every
7:47single document, "The March on Rome" by
7:50Antonino Repaci, ends with a conclusion
7:52that leaves one a bit disappointed.
7:58Because you cannot dedicate, in a first
8:01edition, two large volumes, and in a
8:04second edition 594 pages, to what is
8:07then defined as a clumsy kermis. But I
8:13would not waste years of research, a
8:16meticulous research that one cannot do
8:19without for the quantity of documents
8:22also intelligently collected to
8:25understand what happened. But what
8:30happened, which we must understand, is
8:31not what we then, with the benefit of
8:33hindsight, like someone who reads the
8:35last page of a mystery novel and then
8:37snitches to his wife: "Look, it was the
8:39gardener," and she immediately asks for
8:41a divorce, but you don't grant it to
8:42her because there is the next mystery
8:44novel whose conclusion you've only read
8:46by flipping through it quickly. Who is
8:48it? And you found who the killer is. In
8:54this case, the effort I would ask you
8:56to make with me is to erase what you
8:59know about the March on Rome because it
9:01is probably, like what I know now,
9:04wrong; but to take into account the
9:06fact that the historian, by necessity
9:11of curiosity, must be the most ignorant
9:14of Socratic ignoramuses. But let's not
9:18exaggerate; however, we can ascertain
9:20some things, we can fix some things in
9:22the context of the time in which it
9:24happened, in the way it was lived by
9:26those who were there then and who
9:28unfortunately did not have the chance
9:30to read the historians who later told
9:32them what they had done. I have always
9:36been impressed by the letter that
9:38Giovanni Giolitti wrote to Croce to
9:40thank him for the beautiful, stupendous
9:43portrait. I wonder if he had criticized
9:47or panned him, as he did with Crispi,
9:49if Giolitti would have written to him
9:50in the same way, saying that through
9:52Croce's work he had understood his
9:53politics, had understood what the
9:55essence of what he had done was. Well,
9:58it is always a nice consolation to know
10:01that someone appreciates what you have
10:03done, even if it is not exactly what
10:06you actually did. In this case, we find
10:08ourselves in a tangle of facts. where
10:13things could change hour by hour, and I
10:17will subject you to a sort of
10:19chronological reading of how it unfolds
10:23between 1925 and 1929—no, sorry, we
10:26are in '22, let's stay in '22, between
10:30October 25, 1922 and October 29, or
10:33rather October 30, 1922. keeping in
10:38mind the first fundamental question:
10:40but did the March on Rome actually take
10:42place?
10:44How many are convinced that there was a
10:46March on Rome? Raise both hands so they
10:48are more numerous.
10:52Well, there was no March on Rome on
10:55October 28. For 20 years, Fascism
10:59forced 40 million Italians to
11:01eventually celebrate the March on Rome
11:04on October 28. And on October 28,
11:08nobody marched in Rome, not even the
11:10wild boars that march now, though in
11:12single file and on the crosswalks. Have
11:15you seen the photos? They are very
11:17diligent. Roman wild boars are more
11:19disciplined than any Roman. Perhaps
11:21they are the true Romans of the future.
11:24Nobody marched on October 28. Mussolini
11:29was in Milan, the Blackshirts were
11:31trying to reach Rome, but they were
11:33blocked 70-80 km away because a general
11:39maliciously defamed by Lussu in the
11:44book "The March on Rome and
11:46Surroundings," the Apulian general did
11:48what he was waiting to be ordered to do
11:50, that is, cut off all access routes to
11:53the capital. so on October 28, nobody
11:57marched on Rome and nothing
11:59particularly important happened in Rome
12:02. Everything happened in Milan, at the
12:05Cavour. There was no March on Rome on
12:10October 28, there wasn't one on the
12:1329th, nor on the 30th. On the 30th,
12:18when Mussolini arrived in the morning
12:20by sleeper train—so much irony about
12:22that, but we'll see if we can still
12:24make jokes. The first squads began to
12:28arrive in the afternoon, because, once
12:33the state of siege was revoked (which
12:35had never been proclaimed with the
12:36King's signature), Mussolini arrived in
12:38Rome. The Blackshirts began to arrive
12:42and, if before there were a few tens of
12:45thousands, then, actually when they
12:47paraded—that yes—they marched
12:49through the capital on the 31st, there
12:51were perhaps 80 or 100,000. But on
12:56October 28 nobody marched and the March
12:58on Rome did not happen in any sense.
13:04But then what happened 100 years ago?
13:07So much so that we are even dedicating
13:09an entire season of history to the
13:11Fascisms. Without the March on Rome,
13:14there would have been no Fascism.
13:16Someone might say, "No, but fascism was
13:19born in France before the Great War,"
13:21and a great Israeli historian says this
13:24, but it is not convincing at all
13:26because, without the Great War, we
13:29probably would not have had thousands
13:31of young fighters determined to have
13:33power because they were the nation,
13:36they had shed their blood; so it was up
13:38to them to command in Italy, throwing
13:41away that rabble of old liberal fossils
13:44and, above all, freeing Italy from the
13:47"Red Beast," the triumphant bione,
13:49socialism that was effectively
13:51triumphing. The second question, who
13:55wanted the March on Rome? Well, one
13:58might say, if you just told us it
14:00didn't happen, how can you want
14:02something that didn't happen? Well,
14:04these are the contradictions of the
14:05historian. It is good to have
14:08contradictions, not to be as coherent
14:10as an oyster stuck to its shell,
14:13because there was a march against Rome.
14:19Yes, books have been filled asking
14:24since 1922, 30 October 1922, if it had
14:31been a coup d'état. It was not a coup
14:35d'état because Benito Mussolini
14:37received the mandate from His Majesty
14:39by telegram to form the new government.
14:44You don't carry out a coup d'état when
14:46the king appoints you and tasks you
14:48with forming the new government. But
14:51the fact is that for at least a year
14:54and a half, a series of blows against
14:57the State had been underway which
15:02finally achieved the result that was
15:06desired over these 18 months, on
15:08October 29, 1922. blows against the
15:13State. Because, when from the end of
15:171921 there is in Italy (which is a
15:20liberal state with all its limits, all
15:23its narrowness, all the pettiness of a
15:26liberal oligarchy since 1861, but it
15:28was a state that was oligarchic in 1913
15:33, it has universal male suffrage in
15:391912, it can apply it in 1913, but in
15:411919 it has universal suffrage with a
15:44proportional system), which puts those
15:47who had governed Italy since 1861,
15:49namely the liberals, definitively out
15:52of play? If this is not a liberal state
15:57trying to expand by becoming a
15:59democratic state, perhaps not by
16:02spontaneous will, maybe by choice, but
16:04also by the compulsion of the masses
16:07that organize and mobilize, then it is
16:09difficult to establish what a liberal
16:12state becoming democratic is, without
16:14having reached the perfection that, as
16:17you know, or perhaps do not know,
16:19unfortunately does not exist in history
16:22. When we are all in that other world
16:25full of perfect beings, we will know
16:27what perfection is. In this historical
16:29world, perfection does not exist. It
16:33was a democratic state that allowed the
16:35two political forces that had always
16:37been hostile to the state born from the
16:39Risorgimento, the Catholics and the
16:41Socialists, to become the two dominant
16:44parties in the Chamber of Deputies. If
16:49this is not a liberal oligarchy that,
16:54willingly or forced, even opens up to
16:56its adversaries and becomes a minority,
16:59we will not understand what is
17:01happening. When Benito Mussolini is
17:06tasked by the king to assume the
17:08government of what, with all its
17:14limitations, with all the quips one can
17:16make, the Italian State at the Paris
17:19conference was sitting to negotiate,
17:22then it leaves and makes a mistake,
17:24with its representatives, with the big
17:27three. Italy was the fourth great power
17:30, there was also Japan, but that one
17:32was the yellow race. The Americans did
17:35not accept the idea that race should be
17:37excluded from discrimination it was a
17:43state that had made enormous progress
17:46in those 60 years of unity, less than
17:4860 years. And it was a state that,
17:53probably, if there hadn't been the
17:55maximalist infatuation with imitating
17:58the Bolshevik revolution in Italy, but
18:00if they had accepted holding a
18:02constituent assembly to decide the form
18:05of government, probably Italy would
18:08have been one, perhaps, one would have
18:10remained a monarchy, because you don't
18:13send away the king who won the Great
18:15War. But the forces hostile, not to
18:19that king, but to the monarchy, were
18:21many, so one can think that, perhaps,
18:23Italy in 1919 could have followed the
18:26fate of all the new states, and even
18:28some of the old ones, born after the
18:30Great War, which were all republics,
18:32except for the Serbian, Croatian,
18:34Slovenian state. All the new states
18:39that are born from the disintegration
18:41of the great autocratic empires
18:44sanctified by God, are republics with a
18:47parliamentary system, with a
18:48proportional system, that is, with the
18:50most advanced form of democracy that
18:53was conceived at the time, and Italy
18:55could have headed in that direction and
18:57we would not have had fascism, we would
18:59not have had Mussolini. It is a
19:03hypothesis, certainly; but the fact
19:05remains that until 1921, what then
19:11became a phenomenon even, according to
19:13some, eternal, at the end of 19, Emilio
19:21Gentile's Opera Omnia, for those who
19:23ask how many fascists there were in
19:25Italy in 1919, December, after 9 months
19:27that the Fasci di Combattimento existed
19:30with a man of national, even a bit
19:32international, notoriety, with a major
19:34newspaper distributed among the
19:36fighters, not many, but well, enough.
19:40there were 800, a round number from the
19:44administrative archives of the fascist
19:47movement there were in all of Italy, as
19:53shown by the membership cards, 800
19:58fascists. If you take a quick look back
20:03at history based on your own memories
20:06of revolutionary movements—and we use
20:09this term without a positive emphasis,
20:12as a revolution has become something
20:15good in itself, though it is not, just
20:18as democracy is not—they can be good
20:20or bad. Sometimes they are bad, more
20:24often they are mediocre, and sometimes
20:26they are even good, but they
20:28accidentally and immediately try to get
20:30worse. As the Greeks fatally said, the
20:33cycle of forms of government is always
20:37destined to degenerate. We have never
20:41seen this in Italy nor in Western
20:43democracies. Just look at how
20:45enthusiastically people abstain from
20:48voting to understand how democracy can
20:50sometimes have its limits, even where
20:53it has been traditionally established
20:56for at least 200 years. At that time,
21:01Italy had two large, organized mass
21:04parties. one organized spontaneously
21:07with its own resources, the other
21:09supported by an enormous,
21:11two-thousand-year-old church with all
21:13its parishes. Therefore, if it had been
21:17possible, as was attempted in October
21:19of '22, and a little after the
21:21Matteotti murder, to bring together the
21:24democrats of the reformist socialist
21:26current and the democrats of the
21:29democratic current of the Popular Party
21:31. Perhaps we would have had, as early
21:34as 1921-22, a democratic majority; but
21:39the infatuation with making a
21:42revolution like in Russia, the
21:44infatuation that Italy was in the same
21:47condition as Russia in 1917, prevented
21:51this enormous force, the Italian
21:53Socialist Party, which was the leading
21:56party in the 1919 elections, from
22:00utilizing this huge parliamentary
22:01strength. and that even wider, huge,
22:06deep-rooted work of proletarian
22:08organization, so that Italy could have
22:10taken a completely different course at
22:13the end of 1919, and even at the end of
22:161920. Today we know that the occupation
22:22of the factories was the exhaustion of
22:23socialism, but few understood it at the
22:25time. Few understood it. One of those
22:28who did understand it was, alas, Benito
22:30Mussolini. Because, at the end of 1920,
22:37throughout Italy, with everything
22:38Mussolini had done, with everything the
22:40fascists had done—the role of
22:42Mussolini, and this is a proven fact
22:44that no document—well, not no
22:46document, but you would need an
22:47avalanche of them—could prove that
22:49the architect of fascism was Benito
22:51Mussolini and not the squadristi or the
22:53Ras. Benito Mussolini was just watching
22:58. He was the one who followed, but he
23:00was also the one who led. And the only
23:04times he tried to lead—the Ethiopian
23:06War, the Second World War—he did what
23:09he did, but when he followed, he always
23:11managed to ride the winning side. Those
23:17who made 20,000 fascists in December
23:201920 become 300,000 in December 1921
23:24were the squadristi. And who are the
23:29squadristi? They are the ones who would
23:32push Mussolini more and more to orient
23:37his policy against the State, which
23:42later became the formula: march on Rome
23:45against the State, but without storming
23:47Rome. They weren't as foolish as a
23:51historian of great value, whose work
23:54you always read to learn so much, like
23:57Samson, wrote when he published a book
24:00in 2007 saying that the March on Rome
24:03was a parade of useful idiots. And a
24:08year earlier, an Italian historian,
24:10Giulia Albanese, had instead
24:11demonstrated that the dictatorship
24:13began with that squadrista violence and
24:16the March on Rome. How is that possible
24:18? Useful idiots or the seeds of
24:19dictatorship. Two such opposing theses.
24:23How is it possible for a great
24:25historian and also a politician who is
24:27intelligent in understanding reality?
24:30However, like all intelligent
24:32politicians who try to understand
24:34reality through history, they say
24:35things that—I won't use the vulgar
24:37term. For Salvemini, the March on Rome
24:41—he said it again in 1940-41, during
24:43the lectures he was giving in America.
24:46It was an "opera buffa." Now, a man who
24:50is in the United States at the start of
24:53the Second World War, how can he call
24:55it an "opera buffa"? An action that,
25:02however you want to define it—
25:03revolution, counter-revolution—
25:05nevertheless changed the course of
25:07European history in a way the Bolshevik
25:09revolution hadn't managed to do. There
25:14is a thesis, completely devoid of any
25:16foundation, that fascism was provoked
25:19by the Bolshevik danger; that the March
25:22on Rome was...and people of
25:24considerable intelligence and great
25:26historical culture, like Winston
25:29Churchill, believed that fascism had
25:31saved Italy from Bolshevism. And,
25:35obviously, fascism inflated this legend
25:38, which is totally false, and the one
25:40who falsified it even before it was
25:43launched: Mussolini. Mussolini, who was
25:48absolutely not stupid, was a political
25:51genius of the immediate present. Then,
25:53in perspective, he lost his sense of
25:56proportion. It is in July 1921 that he
26:00writes a lead article in "Il Popolo
26:03d'Italia." Bolshevism is over. To speak
26:07of a Bolshevik danger is nonsense. We
26:11are in 1921. In 1922, when the
26:14international conference opens in Genoa
26:17, the Soviet Union is invited, and
26:19there is even talk that Lenin himself
26:21might come, though the poor man was
26:23beginning to have his strokes.
26:26Mussolini writes an article. By then,
26:29his squadrista fascism dominated much
26:31of central and northern Italy,
26:33therefore including Genoa, where the
26:35conference was taking place. He said, "
26:38Let Lenin come, as long as he doesn't
26:40engage in politics; we won't move, we
26:43won't do anything." I mean, in Italy, a
26:47newspaper editor could address this at
26:49the beginning of 1922. Leading the
26:55fourth, the smallest of the great
26:58powers, but still the fourth power in
27:00Europe, and saying whether Lenin, who
27:03was the recognized leader of a great
27:05revolution, could not come to Rome. No,
27:10no, they can come as long as they don't
27:12engage in politics or try to spread
27:13propaganda. Because for Mussolini, for
27:18fascism, at the moment they decide on
27:21October 16 to launch that movement
27:23later emphatically called the March on
27:26Rome, there is no Bolshevik danger.
27:31It’s over, the triumphant beast
27:34itself, socialism, is finished. What is
27:37it? In October 1922, the great
27:41Socialist Party of 1919 was split into
27:43four or five parties: communists,
27:45maximalists, third-internationalists,
27:47and reformists. Split after split, that
27:53enormous strength accumulated over 30
27:56years of struggle was obviously
27:58dissipated following a methodical,
28:00systematic frontal assault by fascist
28:02squads. Italy was in a state of civil
28:06war. Certainly, for the first two years
28:09, the so-called "Red Biennium," there
28:12was a Socialist Party, the main Italian
28:15party, the strongest party of the
28:17masses, preaching immediate revolution.
28:20Tomorrow, the day after, well, let’s
28:23wait, let’s do it next week, seducing
28:25the masses with the conviction that the
28:27revolution was just around the corner.
28:30A little patience and it will arrive.
28:33And the revolution didn't arrive, it
28:36didn't arrive because they only
28:39preached revolution. In the so-called "
28:42red baronies," places where the
28:44maximalism of the leagues dominated,
28:46there was organized violence with
28:48boycotts where anyone who dissented—
28:50worker or owner—from the league
28:52leader's orders was boycotted, meaning
28:54they didn't even have a priest for
28:56funerals. But this never led the
29:01revolutionary maximalist organization
29:04to destroy bourgeois newspapers, invade
29:07the headquarters of bourgeois parties,
29:09or destroy the organizations and
29:12associations of bourgeois parties; that
29:16is what the fascist movement—then
29:19from 1921 the Fascist Party—did
29:21systematically from late 1920 until the
29:24March on Rome and even after. There was
29:29a climate of civil war, but it wasn't
29:31just a climate, it was the reality of
29:32civil war. The political elections, the
29:36last reasonably liberal ones in May
29:391921, were the bloodiest in the history
29:42of Italy. There were hundreds of deaths
29:46, some fascist, mostly socialist, and
29:49mostly bystanders. In May 1921. But all
29:58this leads to a party, or rather still
30:00a movement, of 200,000 to 250,000
30:03members, all militarized, all former
30:05combatants, all having assimilated
30:07indifference—not even contempt, but
30:10indifference—for the lives of others.
30:14If they were an enemy, there was a will
30:16to exterminate them. and they put this
30:20system into practice with the
30:22conviction that they have the right,
30:24having been volunteers,
30:26interventionists, fighters, and victors
30:28, to govern Italy by driving out those
30:31who were either against the war or are
30:33internationalists. And after having
30:36destroyed the entire organizational
30:40system of 30 years of sacrifice by the
30:43proletariat of the Socialist Party, the
30:45fascists began to destroy the political
30:48and trade union organization of the
30:50Popular Party. Then they would move on
30:53to the republicans, then they would
30:55also move on to liberals like Giovanni
30:57Amendola, like Piero Gobetti. There is
31:00the march on Rome, but it is a march
31:04against the State that fascism begins
31:07at the end of 1920, conducts throughout
31:101921, and intensifies in 1922 with the
31:13summer and autumn offensives before the
31:17march on Rome. One forgets when one
31:21ridicules. Well, some documentation is
31:25needed, otherwise, if I speak, it seems
31:27like I am history. No, I do nothing but
31:30repeat what the documents tell us. The
31:32end of the farce October 25, 1922.
31:38L'Ordine Nuovo. Whoever doesn't know
31:42what L'Ordine Nuovo is—obviously not
31:45the one outlawed a few decades ago, but
31:48the one by Antonio Gramsci—called the
31:51fascist gathering of about 50,000
31:53squadristi from all over Italy in
31:55Naples a farce. Not only was it a farce
32:00that in the land of Pulcinella could
32:04only be a mockery, but on October 27,
32:071922, L'Ordine Nuovo had an editorial
32:11titled "Fascist Maximalism." The
32:17political convention in Naples had a
32:19conclusion; it could not have had a
32:22more grotesque ending. Moreover, all
32:26the sessions of this congress that the
32:29fascists held in Naples on October 24
32:31and 25, moreover all the sessions were
32:34the worthy appendix to the puppet
32:36parade that filled the Neapolitan
32:39streets with a curious multitude. In
32:43the events of the last few days. We are
32:45at October 27, 1922. In the events of
32:50the last few days, says the main organ
32:53of the Italian Communist Party of a
32:55great mind, but I don't know if he
32:58wrote this delirious omen. In the
33:03events of the last few days, the
33:05symptoms of the disintegration of
33:07fascism are already more than clear.
33:10October 27, 1922. But one might say:
33:15the communists were hallucinating from
33:18their conviction that the fascists were
33:21only the white guard of capitalism,
33:23they were servants, so it wasn't
33:25possible to recognize their ability to
33:28take power. And they made the
33:31comparison—which wasn't wrong, except
33:34in its conclusions—with socialist
33:36maximalism: this powerful socialist
33:38party, which had the chance to seize
33:40power if it had only possessed that
33:43crucial formula, fundamental for
33:45understanding history, which is
33:47initiative and decisiveness, had
33:49disintegrated and dissolved, partly
33:51thanks to the contribution of the
33:53communists who, in the 1921 elections,
33:57issued a proclamation saying one must
34:00step over the corpse of the socialist
34:02party to achieve revolution; and the
34:04fascists, thinking they were doing the
34:06communists a favor, decided to step
34:08over the corpse of the socialists. But
34:13we are at October 24th. So, now I've
34:18given a long introduction, perhaps next
34:20year I'll move on to the actual subject
34:22. Eh, how they experienced what was
34:28happening. We have seen the communists,
34:31and I mentioned them because, until
34:331922, if one reads Antonio Gramsci’s
34:35analyses of fascism, one finds the most
34:37intelligent analyses from a historical
34:39perspective. That is, he is someone who
34:42already understands historically what
34:44fascism means, even if he later gets
34:46the conclusions wrong due to the
34:48prejudice of the reaction-revolution
34:50dichotomy. But this is the man
34:53governing Italy, the one who has been
34:59governing since February 1922 and who
35:01was even renewed as Prime Minister at
35:03the end of July, Luigi Facta, who
35:08writes, or rather sends a telegram to
35:11the King, October 24th, 9:40 PM, I
35:16believe the March on Rome project has
35:19now faded. Nevertheless, maintain
35:24worthy attention, maximum vigilance.
35:29But on October 25th at 5:30 PM, Facta
35:32writes another telegram to the King. I
35:36believe the noted threat to Rome has
35:39definitively faded. You might say: "
35:44Well, but then they started to wake up,
35:46" and this is a problem. Because the
35:49fact of this sleepiness had great
35:52importance in the events examined now,
35:55day by day and hour by hour, of the
35:58March on Rome, or what is called the
36:01March on Rome; because by the end of
36:04the day on the 26th, one starts to
36:07sense that something is wrong, that the
36:11fascists are starting to gather, to
36:14mobilize, but they had already issued
36:18clear orders. That was not a conspiracy
36:22, a coup d'état. Never was a coup
36:25d'état carried out in broad daylight,
36:27clearly stating: we want power, we want
36:29to destroy the liberal state. Mussolini
36:32, on October 4th, in Milan gives a
36:36speech published in his newspaper in
36:39which he says the liberal state makes
36:41the mistake of giving freedom even to
36:44its enemies. The fascist state will not
36:46make this mistake. We will divide
36:49Italians into three categories:
36:51fascists, and they will circulate. The
36:56indifferent, and they will stay at home
36:58, and the anti-fascists, and they will
36:59not circulate. Then you read the works
37:04of great historians on the beginning of
37:06the fascist government and you still
37:07read today that Mussolini didn't know
37:09what he wanted. The fascists didn't
37:12have a government program. It's true,
37:15it's true, but there was one thing they
37:17wanted, they stated it clearly, and
37:19they achieved it. They wanted power,
37:23they wanted the government. And here
37:26comes the other question. But who
37:28wanted it? Mussolini. And Mussolini
37:31decides that it's him or no one. Yet in
37:38that period there was a scramble around
37:40poor Facta who said, "No, no, I want to
37:43leave." He was Giolitti's lieutenant,
37:46he was most devoted to Giolitti and was
37:48ready, and he said it continuously and
37:50even wrote it, but he had Giolitti told
37:52, "Come, dear friend, I can't take it
37:53anymore here." He even resigns, a very
37:56serious matter, in the face of
37:58turbulence that smacks of insurrection
38:03and Giolitti says: "I have a cold, I
38:05cannot come." Then he says: "No, the
38:09roads are..." That is, Giolitti doesn't
38:11want, doesn't want to go to Rome and be
38:16involved in an operation that he is
38:18personally conducting behind the back
38:20of his lieutenant Facta and probably
38:22also the King; the documents will come
38:25out, they will yield. What's more with
38:27Benito Mussolini, with Benito Mussolini
38:31. And what does Benito Mussolini ask
38:34Giolitti for? He asks for four
38:39ministries. But we don't even want the
38:41Interior or Foreign Affairs. No, no,
38:43and not even War, but four ministries
38:46and four undersecretaries. That is,
38:50Benito Mussolini, the man who would
38:52later go down in history as the
38:54architect of the March on Rome, was
38:57negotiating with Giolitti for a
38:59ministerial combination in which he was
39:01content with four ministries. And you
39:04throw all of Italy into turmoil, you
39:07destroy an entire party system, an
39:09entire trade union organization system
39:12for four ministries, and you would
39:14stand before the Quirinale saying, "
39:16Your Majesty, give me four ministries,"
39:19and he...and he even promises Giolitti
39:21to send the fascists away because he
39:24was fed up with these fascists.
39:26Mussolini says so. Let's skip ahead,
39:31then we'll come back so you have a bit
39:34more curiosity. We must acknowledge
39:38that others' divisions helped us
39:40powerfully. All those candidates for
39:44government, Bonomi, De Nicola, Orlando,
39:47Giolitti, De Nava, Fera, Meda, Nitti,
39:49it seemed like the desperate roll call
39:51of the high priests of parliamentarism
39:53in agony. And that poor Facta who opens
39:57a ministerial crisis after our rally in
39:59Naples. I commend to you the passivity
40:03of anti-fascism. Yes, that's fine.
40:06After the legalitarian strike, the one
40:09organized by the Labor Alliance on
40:11August 1st, once the news leaked,
40:13Bianchi, secretary of the Fascist party
40:16, immediately and publicly declared
40:18that if the strike wasn't stopped by
40:21the State, by the government, there
40:23would be fascist retaliation; Bianchi
40:26even went to the Interior Minister to
40:29say it, went to the head of government,
40:31the Prime Minister, to say again: "If
40:35you don't stop everything, we will
40:37retaliate, we'll cause havoc." I mean,
40:40the secretary of a party can go to the
40:43Prime Minister and the Interior
40:44Minister and say...Just imagine if
40:46someone did that today; the same thing
40:49would probably happen, it's better not
40:51to entertain that thought. And Taddei
40:56sent telegrams ordering the arrest of
40:58the railway workers who were striking,
41:01to pretend they weren't giving in to
41:04blackmail. The Labor Alliance had
41:06already decided, but they proclaimed
41:08the end of the strike anyway. From
41:10August 4th, the fascist retaliation
41:11began. It was unleashed throughout
41:14central and northern Italy with dozens
41:17of deaths; even fascists were dying too
41:20. And from that moment on, Fascism was
41:24in control of the situation, and what a
41:26resigned Turati said was that it was
41:28the Caporetto of socialism, except it
41:30was a Caporetto for the socialists
41:31without a Vittorio Veneto. That is why
41:35this gentleman—we will see who he is
41:38later—had certainly, that boat,
41:41meaning the one of socialism, of
41:43anti-fascism, was leaking from every
41:46side. The Labor Alliance, which was the
41:49alliance that had called the strike,
41:51had sunk it. But in short, even a small
41:55general strike, provided it was thrown
41:58in our way, would have greatly hindered
42:02us. Certainly, if Giolitti had been in
42:06government, perhaps things as they
42:09happened, the famous things as they
42:11happened, wouldn't have gone so
42:13smoothly. That man knows how to give
42:17prefects a sense of security and
42:19stability. In our areas in Tuscany, in
42:24the Po Valley, there would have been
42:26fierce resistance, but I don't know if
42:28we really would have succeeded. When a
42:32state wants to defend itself, it can
42:35always defend itself, and then it wins.
42:38The truth is that the State in Italy no
42:41longer existed. Meanwhile, there were
42:44two: ours in its embryonic stage and
42:46the official one, which was moving by
42:48pure inertia thanks to the bureaucrats
42:50'paperwork. We are in Rome, at the
42:54Hotel Savoia, late at night on October
42:5831st. Mussolini, tired after all the
43:02hard work of a year and a half spent
43:04taming the Blackshirts, subduing rebels
43:06, following their excesses, and finally
43:08getting himself brought in a group, or
43:10rather in a sleeping car, and then
43:12making irony of that too; and we shall
43:15see how foolish irony about history is.
43:20Yes, really, excuse the expression, as
43:22Rossi says, he sprawls out in an
43:24armchair, puts his feet up
43:26American-style, and heaves a sigh:
43:28finally, we made it. He didn't believe
43:31it. And the proof that he didn't
43:34believe it—and these aren't documents
43:36I "discovered," I never boast about
43:37finding documents, they are in the
43:39archives, one just looks and finds them
43:40. Who wanted the March on Rome? That is
43:45the real question, not the one that
43:48didn't happen on October 28th, but the
43:50one that had been underway since the
43:53end of 1921, since the founding of the
43:56Fascist Party. When the Fascist Party
44:00is founded, the then-Prime Minister
44:02Bonomi wants to—he announces, he
44:04leaks, and finally he does it—issue a
44:07circular declaring all paramilitary
44:09movements and armed organizations
44:11prohibited. The only ones, aside from
44:15those few "Arditi del Popolo" on the
44:17left who weren't supported by either
44:20the Communists or the Socialists
44:22because the name "Arditi" reminded them
44:24of the Fascists, said: "Fine." And
44:29Bianchi makes a manifesto, sends a
44:31circular from*Il Popolo d'Italia*to the
44:33public. The squads and the*fasci*are
44:38the same thing. We will side with the
44:44State against Bolshevism. We will be
44:49indifferent to the State being attacked
44:51, but we will be against the State if
44:53it thinks of dissolving the Fascist
44:55squads. In other words, in a State with
44:58the Zanardelli Code—the penal code
45:00that established that armed bands could
45:02not be organized—there is an armed
45:04party of 300,000 members that has
45:06destroyed most of the opposing
45:07organizations and parties, telling the
45:09State: "Either you are with me or
45:11against me, you have no other choice."
45:14And we are in December 1921, and there
45:17will be another year, and in this year
45:20you have—today is the 27th, the
45:22centenary, right? We can neither
45:24celebrate nor commemorate it. Let us
45:26just say it is a coincidence. Today,
45:29May 27, 2022, is the centenary of the
45:32squadrist occupation of Bologna 100
45:35years ago, with 30,000 squadristi
45:38forcing the government to remove
45:41Prefect Mori, the man Mussolini would
45:44later use to defeat—or attempt to
45:47defeat—the Mafia in Sicily. Bologna
45:52was occupied from May 27th to June 2nd
45:55by a prefect, Mori, an energetic
45:57official who simply didn't want the
46:00mass movements the Fascists were
46:02conducting with workers who, having
46:04seen their leftist unions destroyed,
46:07had flocked to the ones the Fascists
46:10were inventing, whether for benefits,
46:12out of fear, or to find work. And since
46:15there was no work, the Fascists
46:17operated the same system the Socialists
46:18did, forcing the government to provide
46:20public works. Mori said: "Fine, but
46:22don't move them—I mean, don't move
46:23the masses around; you don't take
46:24workers from Ferrara and bring them to
46:26Bologna and so on." Well, Mori wasn't
46:31removed in June, but in August, June
46:3627th. After that, from the summer until
46:41the March on Rome, the systematic
46:43mobilization of squadristi occupying
46:46cities continued. Farinacci occupied
46:49Cremona for five days to demand the
46:51banishment of the Popular Party
46:53deputies Miglioli and the other whose
46:55name escapes me, and the removal of the
46:57prefect, which is what happened. The
46:59two Popular deputies could no longer
47:01set foot in Cremona, and the prefect
47:03was removed. Then Rovigo was occupied,
47:07then Novara, systematically. Togliatti
47:11and Lavanti, who were foolish in
47:13predicting the possibility of a
47:15Bolshevik revolution but very sharp in
47:18seeing what was actually happening,
47:21made a sort of diagram of how the
47:24Fascist occupation of Italy was
47:26unfolding, city by city: Ancona, Genoa,
47:29and so on. Then they moved to Bolzano
47:33at the beginning of October, then to
47:36Trento, and then on October 16th, Rome
47:40was decided. But who decided that the
47:43Prime Minister had to be Benito
47:45Mussolini? When Mussolini was
47:48negotiating with Giolitti, Salandra,
47:51Orlando, Nitti, and all the old former
47:54Prime Ministers—and indirectly even
47:57with Facta—he was asking for four
47:59ministries, no more. And he didn't want
48:02to join the government, did he? He said
48:04, "I must remain outside to control the
48:06Fascists." The head of a party who has
48:08to stay outside to control them, as if
48:10they were loose cannons. They were
48:12raving madmen, but he was the craziest
48:14of them all because he followed them.
48:17And so, here we are on October 27, 1922
48:20, at 3:00 a.m. I don't know how to do
48:28the drama, but essentially it’s
48:30Bianchi, the secretary of the National
48:32Fascist Party, who, on the evening of
48:34October 26 th—while everyone is
48:36negotiating with Mussolini to form a
48:38government led by a liberal with a few
48:41Socialist ministers and
48:42undersecretaries—says: "No, The fall
48:47of the government, the Naples Congress
48:49forced Facta's resignation, therefore
48:51we are the party that forced the
48:53resignation, we are the party that has
48:55the right to form the government." They
48:57had 30 deputies, eh, not more than that
48:59. The prime minister must be Mussolini.
49:02We don't know, let's hope the documents
49:05prove it or disprove it for us. We
49:07don't know if Mussolini had agreed with
49:09Bianchi, but it is Bianchi who throws
49:11out the name of Mussolini and imposes
49:13it, but he imposes it even on Mussolini
49:15himself. Bianchi, Benito. Tell me,
49:20Michelino, my people and I wanted to
49:22know what orders to give, because they
49:24had heard that he was negotiating with
49:30Giolitti, that the prefect of Milan,
49:32acting as an intermediary, had
49:34initiated a good deal; and Mussolini
49:36literally sends, I'm quoting from
49:38memory, to tell Giolitti: "Do we have
49:40an agreement for four ministries?""No,
49:43I won't be there." But no, the
49:45important thing is that the war
49:46ministry goes to someone close to us;
49:48for the other ministries, no, we'll
49:50settle for minor ones. My people and I
49:54wanted to know what orders to give.
49:56It's October 27th, 3 o'clock. My orders
49:59. Ah, yes. And what news is there? The
50:05news is this, that Lusignoli went to
50:08Cavour and says he can secure four
50:10important portfolios from Giolitti and
50:13four undersecretaryships and maybe even
50:15the handkerchief with the little knot,
50:18Bianchi. And what would these
50:21portfolios be, Mussolini? Navy,
50:23Treasury, Agriculture and Colonies.
50:25Then there would be War, which would be
50:27given to a friend of ours, and then
50:29there would be four undersecretaries.
50:32But it really seemed like a marketplace
50:33. And so Bianchi, Mussolini, he had me
50:37call from Cavour where Giolitti was
50:40staying, that he will be back at 9:00
50:42this morning. Eh, excuse me, Lusignoli
50:47went, the prefect of Milan went to
50:50negotiate. Benito, tell me Benito, do
50:53you want to listen to me, a Southerner
50:56from Calabria? Do you want to hear my
51:00firm, irrevocable resolve? Ah, yes, yes
51:03. Answer no. And Mussolini, it's
51:07natural, the machine is now assembled
51:09and nothing can stop it. Bianchi is as
51:13fateful as destiny itself. What is
51:16about to happen. By now there is no
51:18longer any reason to discuss portfolios
51:20. It's natural. So, we have an
51:23agreement. I can also communicate this
51:25on your behalf. There were the
51:28quadrumvirs waiting to set the
51:29insurrection in motion. Mussolini, wait
51:33, let's first hear what Lusignoli has
51:35to say. Let's talk about it again
51:38tomorrow. All right? So that you can be
51:42up to date with the whole movement, I
51:43will also tell you the report that
51:45Lusignoli will give me. Good, good.
51:47Goodbye, goodbye. Benito. Bianchi had
51:52understood that Mussolini would never
51:55have agreed to carry out the risky act
51:58of the March on Rome. One might say, "
52:01Dear Gentile, but this is just your
52:03hypothesis." From a very well-known
52:06phone call published many years ago by
52:08Efraem Ferraris, the cabinet chief at
52:11the Ministry of the Interior. Well,
52:15however, there is a letter which,
52:17although I also published it many years
52:19ago, does not seem to have sparked much
52:21curiosity in those who still ask
52:23themselves, "Who actually wanted the
52:25March on Rome?" The industrialists, the
52:27Pope, the King? Biden, maybe they were
52:32still around. This is a letter that
52:36Bianchi wrote on June 10, 1924. Do you
52:39know what happened? Giacomo Matteotti
52:44had disappeared, and no one doubted he
52:47had been murdered. And Mussolini began
52:51trying to shift the responsibility away
52:53from himself for perhaps not having
52:55been the mastermind, but certainly the
52:57accomplice, or at any rate the
52:58responsibility for what had led to
53:00Matteotti's murder. He must have had a
53:05strong disagreement with Bianchi, who
53:08was instead in favor of resisting with
53:10the force of the squadrismo; and
53:12Bianchi wrote him a dry, sharp, and
53:15very clear letter that, unless they
53:17prove to me it is fake, I will continue
53:20to believe it is the handwritten
53:22confession of the man who wanted the
53:25entire march against the State,
53:27sometimes kicking Mussolini to follow
53:30him. Remember, Duce, that I stood by
53:33your side with complete selflessness,
53:36always and especially in the sad and
53:38difficult moments, when we were just a
53:40handful of men and we were all risking
53:42everything. Bianchi was there with how
53:46many fascists founded the Fasci di
53:48Combattimento, that famous natal day
53:51like the birth of Bethlehem or Christ.
53:5453. Actually, Mussolini says 52 because
53:57, being there myself, I don't count
53:59myself. Remember that my work was worth
54:04what it was worth in organizing the
54:06party. He was the first secretary and
54:08the one who effectively transformed a
54:10shapeless aggregate into a party that
54:12was equally shapeless, but nonetheless
54:14efficiently effective as a war machine.
54:18My work was worth what it was worth in
54:21organizing the party and making it
54:23capable of facing the situation of 1921
54:27and 1922. Remember that the March on
54:31Rome would not have been possible if,
54:33in August 1922, Fascism had not crushed
54:36the legalitarian strike by imposing—
54:38on my initiative, only on my initiative
54:41, he underlines—against the differing
54:44opinion of the old fascist
54:45parliamentary group and your
54:47dressing-downs at the Hotel Savoia
54:50regarding my impulsive act. I, on my
54:55own initiative, wanted the 48-hour
54:57ultimatum brought directly to the
55:00government; remember that, while being
55:02called a madman by the wise men like
55:05you who pontificated on politics at
55:08Montecitorio, on the eve of the March
55:10on Rome, I was the first to launch, on
55:13October 26, 1922, the idea of a
55:15Mussolini government. Until these
55:21documents are disproven, that boast of
55:25Mussolini's—the phrase he uses with
55:28Rossi about having fooled everyone—
55:34and above all, having succeeded in
55:36preventing Giolitti from taking office
55:38because he would have made Mussolini
55:40end up like D'Annunzio, perhaps,
55:42probably, without this stubborn
55:44Calabrian, who was also suffering from
55:46tuberculosis, who was the true leader
55:52of the Fascist party since 1921, the
55:54course of history would likely have
55:57been slightly different; slightly
55:59different, and perhaps we wouldn't be
56:02here tonight, at this conference
56:04dedicated to Fascism. But did no one
56:08understand anything then? No, some did;
56:11you could count them on the fingers of
56:14one hand. Republican political critics,
56:20probably Giuseppe Giovanni Conti, I
56:22don't know—the article is unsigned—
56:24as soon as the National Fascist Party
56:27is established, they say an armed party
56:29that uses violence to eliminate
56:31opponents and clearly aspires to
56:33dictatorship is incompatible with
56:35democracy. Luigi Salvatorelli, the
56:42journalist, the editor, the
56:44editorialist for La Stampa, begins
56:47systematically, from July 1921, to
56:50analyze what the Fascist party is, how
56:53it acts, how it speaks, how it preaches
56:55and practices, saying: "It is a party
56:58that aspires to total dictatorship and
57:01will destroy, if it reaches power, 150
57:07years of European democratic history."
57:10And Giovanni Amendola, who has some
57:13hesitations, says: well, let's bring
57:15these Fascists into power. Everyone,
57:19the liberals, thought: we'll bring them
57:21to power, they're hungry, we'll throw
57:24them a bone and they'll quiet down—
57:26but no. Even Giovanni Amendola says: a
57:31party that openly operates with the
57:33desire to destroy the liberal state, if
57:36it takes power with this armed
57:38organization, will destroy the liberal
57:41state. And the Fascists destroyed him.
57:45But there were those who understood
57:46immediately. In Italy, the Fascists
57:51seized power with a coup d'état. If
57:55they manage to keep it, then this will
57:56be a historical event that could have
57:58unpredictable consequences not only for
58:00Italy, but for all of Europe. It could
58:04be the first step toward the advanced
58:06victory of the counter-revolution.
58:08Counter-revolutionary governments until
58:11today have acted, in France for example
58:13, as if they were democratic and
58:15peace-loving. In Italy, however, a type
58:17of government is asserting itself that
58:19is frankly anti-democratic and
58:21imperialist. Mussolini's coup d'état
58:25can be compared to Lenin's in October
58:271917, but directed in the opposite
58:30sense, of course, and it may well lead
58:32to a period of disorder and war in
58:35Europe. The person noting this is Harry
58:41Kessler—I don't know if he was the
58:44great-uncle or ancestor of the Kessler
58:47twins—a very fine writer, a great
58:49intellectual, an aesthete, a German
58:52diplomat in Berlin on October 29, 1922.
58:57Well, he hit the mark; he threw it out
58:59there and succeeded. A sad day, a
59:03gloomy Italian October ends. Above my
59:06head, an airplane circles through the
59:08fog. Mussolini has arrived in Rome by
59:11the grace of the King, of fate, and of
59:14his own genius; minister of the kingdom
59:16in everything but name, the dictator of
59:19Italy. Peace is signed, the drama is
59:23over. So wrote Cavour once. This same
59:27statesman, after the formation of
59:29united Italy, proclaimed that the glory
59:31—to quote Cavour—for Italy is
59:33having known how to constitute itself
59:35as a nation without sacrificing liberty
59:37to independence, without passing
59:38through the hands of a dictator.
59:43Whatever enlightened benefits the new
59:45regime—people were already speaking
59:47of a fascist regime—might bring to
59:49Italy, it can no longer boast of
59:51Cavour's claim. The Constitution,
59:55legality, have kicked the bucket in
59:57Italy today. From today, October 30,
1:00:021922, political democracy means as
1:00:04little in Italy as it did under the
1:00:07rule of Cromwell. And it makes no
1:00:11difference that the herd has willingly
1:00:14submitted to the new yoke. But these
1:00:17are squiggles to be remembered in the
1:00:19textbooks of centuries to come. The
1:00:21significant thing: a new era begins in
1:00:23Italy, as it began in Rome with the
1:00:26dictatorship of Sulla. The events of
1:00:29these last few days are part of a
1:00:32European trend that began with the
1:00:34Great War, includes the Russian
1:00:36Revolution, and cannot conclude during
1:00:38our generation. This was a Marxist
1:00:43American journalist, Carleton Beals,
1:00:46who, since 1921 as a correspondent for
1:00:49the American press, had followed the
1:00:52coup against the State by the fascist
1:00:55party step by step. Having said that,
1:01:02if all this still represents a farce or
1:01:05a comic opera or a clumsy kermesse, it
1:01:11means that I have understood nothing of
1:01:13the March on Rome, and I am sorry to
1:01:15have communicated so much ignorance to
1:01:18you, but I hope it serves to help you
1:01:20gain much knowledge with the new works
1:01:22that will come out for this centenary.
1:01:25I, however, prefer to wait for the next
1:01:27centenary to be sure that all the
1:01:30documents have been found. I thank you
1:01:33for your patience, for your attention,
1:01:34and also for the gentleman. Thank you.
1:01:51It is time for dinner. I remain,
1:02:08however, moved, otherwise it is
1:02:10excessive. Good evening. Thank you.

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