Speech at the Teatro Lirico in Milan, December 16, 1944

By Benito Mussolini

Comrades! Dear Comrades of Milan!

I shall dispense with any preamble and enter immediately into the heart of the subject matter of my speech.

Sixteen months after the date of the terrible unconditional surrender imposed and accepted in accordance with the democratic and criminal formula of Casablanca, the evaluation of these events brings us, once again, these questions: Who is guilty of betrayal? Who has suffered or is suffering the consequences of this treachery? Let us be quite clear, it is not a matter of a judgment of historical revision, and much less is it a matter that is in any way justifiable. Some neutralists have attempted to do so, but we categorically reject this in the strongest sense, in addition to the source from which it originates.

Who then are the traitors? The unconditional surrender announced on September 8 was desired by the monarchy, by court circles, by the plutocratic currents of the Italian bourgeoisie, by certain clerical forces—who allied for the occasion with Masonic ones—and by the General Staff which no longer believed in victory and which were headed by Badoglio. As early as May, more precisely on May 15, the ex-King noted in his diary—which has recently come into our possession—that one must "disengage" from the German alliance. Without a shadow of doubt, it was the ex-King who ordered the surrender, and Badoglio who carried it out. But in order to get to September 8, there first had to be a July 25—i.e., the coup d'etat and the regime change.

The justification for the surrender—that is, the impossibility of continuing the war—was denied forty days later, on October 13, when war was declared against Germany. That declaration was no mere symbolic act. From that time on there has been collaboration between Badoglio's Italy and the Allies, carried on behind the lines by labour units; while the fleet, which had been built in its entirety by Fascism, passed completely into the hands of the enemy and immediately began to operate with the enemy fleets. Thus, it was not peace, but rather continuation of the war by means of so-called co-belligerency. It was not peace, but rather the transformation of the entire territory of the nation into one immense battlefield—and that is to say, one immense field of ruins. It was not peace, but rather the now predicted participation of Italian ships and troops in the war against Japan.

From all of this it is clear that those who have suffered the consequences of the betrayal are, first of all, the Italian people. It can be declared that the Italian people did not commit treason toward the German ally. Except for a few isolated instances, the Army units disbanded without offering any resistance to orders coming from the German commands to disarm. Many Army units that were located outside the Fatherland, and many Air Force units, rallied at once to the side of the German forces—and this was true of tens of thousands of men. All the formations of the Militia, except for one battalion in Corsica, went over—every last man of them—to the side of the Germans.

. . . It must be recognized that the betrayals of the Summer of 1944 were even more opprobrious, as Romanians, Bulgarians and Finns, having also ignominiously capitulated, and one of them, the Bulgarians, without having fired a single shot, in a span of 24 hours switched sides and, with all their mobilized forces, began to attack the Germans, who had to make a difficult and bloody retreat.

Now that was a true betrayal in the most repugnant sense of the term!

What transpired in Italy pales in comparison to the betrayal of these other nations.

The Italian people have suffered to such an extent that I do not hesitate to call it superhuman. Moreover, while a portion of the Italian people accepted the surrender as a result of either irresponsibility or exhaustion, another portion lined up immediately alongside Germany.

It is time to tell our Italian, German and Japanese comrades that the contribution made by Republican Italy to the common cause since September 1943—despite the temporary reduction in size of the Republic's territory—has been far greater than is commonly believed.

For obvious reasons, I cannot go into detailed statistics regarding the total contribution made by Italy in both the economic and military sectors. Our collaboration with the Reich, in terms of soldiers and workers, is represented by this figure: 786,000 men as of September 30. This fact is incontrovertible, since it comes from German sources. One should add to this the formerly interned military personnel—that is to say, several hundred thousand men involved in Germany's productive process—and other tens of thousands of Italians who already were in the Reich, where they had gone in recent years as free labourers in the factories and fields. In the face of this evidence, Italians who live in the territory of the Social Republic have the right, once and for all, to raise their heads and demand that their effort be fairly judged in a comradely manner by all members of the Tripartite Pact.

. . . In 1945 Italy's participation in the war will have major developments, through the gradual strengthening of our military organizations, entrusted to the firm faith and proven experience of that brave soldier by the name of Marshal Rodolfo Graziani.

. . . On September 15, 1943, the National Fascist Party became the Republican Fascist Party. At that time there was no shortage of sick and opportunistic elements—or perhaps they were in a state of mental confusion—who wondered if it would not have been wiser to eliminate the word "Fascism," and to place the accent exclusively on the word "Republic". I rejected then, just as I would reject today, that useless and cowardly suggestion.

It would have been both cowardice and an error to lower our banner which had been consecrated by so much blood, and to allow those ideas that are serving today as the password in the intercontinental struggle to circulate almost as though they were contraband.

Thus by continuing to call ourselves Fascists, as we shall always do, and by dedicating ourselves to the cause of Fascism as we have done since 1919 until the present, we have given, in the wake of recent events, a new thrust to action in both the political and the social fields. Actually, more than a new thrust; one might better say, a return to original positions. It is a matter of historical record that prior to 1922 Fascism had republican tendencies, and the reasons why the insurrection of 1922 spared the Monarchy have already been explained.

From the social standpoint, the program of Republican Fascism is but the logical continuation of the program of 1919—of the achievements of the splendid years that took place between the announcement of the Labour Charter and the conquest of the empire. Nature does not operate by leaps; and the economy even less so.

It was necessary first to build a foundation of syndical legislation and corporative bodies before we could take the subsequent step toward socialization. Even at the first meeting of the Council of Ministers on September 27, 1943, I declared that "the Republic would be unitary in the political field and decentralized in the administrative field... and determine the place, function, and responsibility of labour in a truly modern national society."

. . . During the month of October I drafted and revised that document now known in Italian political history as the "Manifesto of Verona", which laid out in several fairly determined points the program—not so much of the Party, but of the Republic. This occurred more precisely on November 15, two months after the reconstitution of the Republican Fascist Party.

The National Assembly of the Republican Fascist Party [i.e. the Congress of Verona] promulgated the Manifesto as an eighteen-point program, after saluting those who died for the Fascist cause, and after reaffirming as a supreme necessity the reorganization of the Armed Forces and the continuation of the war alongside the powers of the Tripartite Pact.

. . . The Manifesto began with the demand to convene the Constituent Assembly, and further defined this Constituent Assembly as "a synthesis of the nation's values".

Now, admittedly, the Constituent Assembly has not been convened. This demand has not been realized so far because it can only be realized once the war is over. I say to you with the utmost sincerity that I found it unsuitable to convene a Constituent Assembly when the territory of the Republic—in light of ongoing military operations—could in no way be considered definitive. It seemed to me premature to create a genuine rule of law in the fullness of all its institutions, when there was no Armed Forces to support it. A State that does not have an Armed Forces is anything but a State.

It was said in the Manifesto that no citizen can be held beyond seven days without a court order from the judicial authorities. This has not always been followed. The reasons are to be found in the plurality of our police authorities and allies, and in the actions of outlaws; the problem has persisted due to the ongoing civil war, which is plagued by reprisals and counter-reprisals. Regarding these incidents, the anti-Fascists have unleashed a wave of propaganda, in the usual fashion, attempting to depict the situation as though every incident were the same. I must declare in the most explicit way that some of the methods that have been used are deeply repugnant to me, even if isolated. The State, as such, can not adopt methods which denigrate it. For centuries we have spoken of the law of retaliation. Well then, it is a law, not an arbitrary personal will.

Mazzini, the uncompromising apostle of the Republican idea, sent a commissioner to Ancona in 1849, in the early days of the Roman Republic, to teach the Jacobins that it was permissible to fight the papalini, but never to go outside the law by killing them or stealing silverware from their homes. Whoever does such things, especially if by chance he is a card-carrying member of the Party, deserves double condemnation.

. . . The Congress of Verona, starting with the eighth point, outlined its position on foreign policy. It was solemnly declared that the essential purpose of the Republic's foreign policy is "the unity, independence and territorial integrity of the Fatherland. The territory in question comprises the maritime and alpine borders marked in nature, as well as the borders consecrated by sacrifice of blood and by history."

Concerning this territorial unity, I refuse—knowing Sicily and our Sicilian brothers—to take seriously the so-called separatist movements of despicable mercenaries financed by the enemy. Perhaps this separatism has another motive: perhaps our Sicilian brothers may want to break away from Bonomi's Italy in order to join up with Republican Italy.

It is my profound conviction that as soon as the struggles are behind us and the phenomenon of criminal outlawry is liquidated, the moral unity of the Italians tomorrow will be infinitely stronger than it was yesterday, because it will have been cemented by exceptional sufferings that have not spared a single family. And when the soul of a people is saved through moral unity, its territorial integrity and its political independence are also saved.

At this point a word should be said about Europe and our conception of it. I shall not linger over the question of what is Europe, of where it begins and where it ends from a geographical standpoint. Nor shall I speculate whether an attempt at unification today would have better success than previous ones. That would lead me too far astray. I shall say here only that the formation of a European community is desirable and perhaps even possible, but I must say very explicitly that we do not feel we are Italians because we are Europeans; rather we feel we are Europeans because we are Italians. The distinction is not just a subtlety; it is fundamental.

Just as the nation is the result of millions of families who possess their own physiognomy even though they also possess a national common denominator, so in the European community every nation must join as a well-defined entity in order to avoid letting the community itself sink into internationalism of a socialist stamp or vegetate into the generic, equivocal cosmopolitanism of Jewish and Masonic stamp.

While some points in the Verona program have been skipped over by a succession of military events, more concrete achievements have been realized in the economic and social field.

Here the innovation has radical aspects. The eleventh, twelfth and thirteenth points of the Manifesto of Verona are fundamental. Set forth in the "Premise for a New Italian Economic Structure," they have found their practical application in the Law on Socialization. The interest aroused throughout the world has been truly great, and today in all quarters—even in that part of Italy dominated and tortured by the Anglo-Americans—every political program contains the demand for socialization.

Workers who at first were somewhat skeptical now understand the importance of it. Its implementation is in progress. Its rhythm would have been faster in other times. But the seed has been sown. Whatever happens, this seed is bound to germinate. It is the inauguration of that which eight years ago, here in Milan before 500,000 cheering people, I prophesied would be the "century of labour," in which the labourer would emerge from the economic and moral status of a wage earner to assume the role of a producer who is personally involved in the development of the nation's economy and prosperity.

Fascist socialization is the logical and rational solution that, on the one hand, avoids the bureaucratization of the economy through State totalitarianism [i.e. Bolshevism] and, on the other, overcomes the individualism of the liberal economic system which, though it proved to be a useful instrument for progress in the early phase of the capitalistic form of economics, is today no longer suitable in the face of new demands of a "social" character in the various national communities.

Through socialization, the best elements drawn from the ranks of the workers will be able to demonstrate their talents. I am determined to continue in this direction.

I have already entrusted two sectors to the various categories of labourers: local administration and food distribution. These sectors, which are very important and especially so under present circumstances, are already completely in the hands of the workers. Now they must show, and I hope that they will show, their specific preparation and their civic consciousness.

As you can see, something has been accomplished during these twelve months, in the midst of incredible and growing difficulties brought about by the objective circumstances of the war and by blind opposition from those elements who have sold out to the enemy.

In very recent days the situation has improved. The fence-sitters, i.e. those who were waiting on the side lines for the Anglo-Americans to come, are in decline. What has happened in Bonomi's Italy has brought them disillusionment. Everything that the Anglo-Americans promised them has turned out to be a miserable propagandistic trick.

I think I am right when I declare that the people of the Po Valley not only do not want the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons; they scorn them. And they do not want to have anything to do with a government which—even though it has Togliatti as a vice-premier—would bring back to the north the reactionary, plutocratic and dynastic forces, of which the latter are already openly enjoying the protection of England.

How ridiculous are those Republicans who oppose the Republic as proclaimed by Mussolini and succumb to the monarchy commissioned by Churchill. Which demonstrates irrefutably that the Savoy monarchy is in the service of Great Britain, not of Italy!

There is no doubt that the fall of Rome is a climatic date in the history of the war. General Alexander himself stated on the eve of the landing in France that it was necessary to have a victory tied to a great name. And there is no greater or more universally known name than Rome. Thus the fall of Rome created an encouraging atmosphere for the Allies.

There was a period when the conquest of Paris and Brussels, coupled with the unconditional surrender of Romania, Finland and Bulgaria, gave rise to a movement of such euphoria that—according to the media—it was believed that the war would be practically over by this Christmas, with the triumphal entry of the Allies into Berlin.

During that period of euphoria many began to mock and undervalue the new German weapons, which are improperly called "secret". Many believed that through the use of such weapons, at some point, by merely pressing a button, the war would abruptly end. Such a misunderstanding is juvenile when it is not malicious. There are no "secret weapons", but only new weapons which, needless to say, are only secret as long as they are not used in combat. That such weapons do exist is well known from the bitter findings of the British . . . thousands of German scientists are working day and night to increase the war potential of Germany.

Meanwhile the German resistance is getting stronger and many illusions cultivated by enemy propaganda have disappeared. There are no cracks in the morale of the German people, who are fully aware that their very physical existence and their future as a race is at stake. There is no hint of rebellion or even unrest among the millions and millions of foreign workers, despite the insistent appeals and proclamations by the American generals. An eloquent indicator of the nation's spirit is the percentage of volunteers, who almost form an entire class of their own. Germany is able to resist and to foil the enemy's plans.

Minimizing the loss of territories, won and kept at the price of blood, is not an intelligent tactic, but the purpose of war is not the conquest or preservation of territories but rather the destruction of enemy forces, i.e. their surrender and therefore the cessation of hostilities.

Now the German Armed Forces are not only not destroyed, but they are in a phase of increasing development and power.

. . . Without exaggerating, it can be observed that the political situation today is not favourable to the Allies.

First of all in America, as in England, there are currents opposed to the demand for unconditional surrender. The formula of Casablanca means the death of millions of young people, since it prolongs the war indefinitely; peoples such as the Germans and the Japanese will never deliver themselves hands and feet tied to the enemy, who openly admit their plans to destroy the Tripartite countries.

One day a Soviet ambassador to Rome, Vladimir Potemkin, said to me: "The First World War bolshevized Russia, the second will bolshevize Europe." This prophecy will not come true, but if it did happen, then the responsibility would fall primarily on Britain.

Politically Albion is already defeated. Russian armies are on the Vistula and the Danube, i.e. they are occupying half of Europe. The Communist parties, i.e. the parties that are being financed by Stalin and which are following his orders, already have partial power in Western countries.

What does "liberation" mean in Belgium, Italy and Greece? They keep using this word in their newspapers. It means misery, despair, civil war.

. . . Churchill wanted a zone of influence reserved for democracy in Western Europe backed by a pact between France, England, Belgium, Holland and Norway, first in an anti-German role and then anti-Russian.

The Stalin-De Gaulle agreements immediately stifled this idea, which had been put forward, under London's instructions, by the Belgian Spaak. The game has failed and Churchill must be biting his hat, thinking of the Russian entry into the Mediterranean and Russian pressure on Iran, and wondering whether the Casablanca policy has not been one of complete failure for "poor old England".

Pressed by the two military giants of East and West, by their insolent voracious cousins across the Atlantic and the inexhaustible Eurasians, Great Britain sees that their game has endangered their imperial future. That the "political" relations of the Allies are not in the best of shape is demonstrated by the grueling preparation of a new conference.

Let me now speak of far and near Japan. What is more than certain, indeed dogmatic, is that the Empire of the Rising Sun will never bend and will fight until victory. In recent months Japanese weapons have been crowned with great successes.

. . . The will and soul of Japan is demonstrated by all the volunteers who give up their lives. Tens of thousands of young people have as their motto: "Every instrument is an enemy ship". And they prove it. Faced with this superhumanly heroic resolve, one can understand the attitude of certain American circles, who are now wondering whether it would have been better for the Americans if Roosevelt had kept the promise he made to the American mothers that no soldier would be sent to fight and die overseas. He lied, as is customary in all democracies.

For us Italians of the Republic, it is a source of pride to have at our side faithful comrades such as the soldiers, sailors and airmen of the Tenno Heika, whose imposing exploits have gained the admiration of the world.

Now I ask you: do not the Italians—healthy Italians, the best, who regard dying for their country as the eternity of life—still have the same determined spirit of self-sacrifice? Has it become extinct? (The crowd shouts: "No! No!") Let me remind you of an event from the last war, of an Italian aviator who, unable to shoot down an enemy aircraft, decided to collide his plane into the enemy's aircraft, killing himself and taking his opponent with him. Do you remember his name? He was a humble sergeant: Arturo Dell'Oro.

In 1935, when England wanted to suffocate us in our sea, I took up the gauntlet and sent well over 400,000 legionaries into Africa, despite the threatening presence of Her Britannic Majesty's Navy, anchored in the ports of the Mediterranean. Then in Italy, at Rome, the death squadrons were formed. I must tell you, in truth, that the first on the list was the Commander of the Air Force. Well then, if tomorrow it became necessary to replenish these death squadrons, if tomorrow it became necessary to show that the blood of the Roman legionaries still flows in our veins, would my appeal to the nation fall on deaf ears? (The crowd responds: "No!")

We intend to defend the Po Valley tooth and nail. (Shouts of "Yes!") We intend that the Po Valley shall remain republican while we wait for all of Italy to become republican. (Enthusiastic shouts of "Yes!" "All!") If the day should ever come when the entire Po Valley is contaminated by the enemy, the destiny of the entire nation will be compromised. But I sense, I see, that tomorrow a form of armed and irresistible organization will arise that will render life practically impossible for the invaders. We should make out of the entire Po Valley a single Athens! (The crowd erupts in unanimous shouts of approval: "Yes! Yes!")

From what I have told you, it is obvious that not only has the enemy coalition not won; it will not win. The monstrous alliance between plutocracy and Bolshevism was able to perpetrate its barbaric war like the execution of an enormous crime, and it has struck crowds of innocent people and destroyed what European civilization created over a span of twenty centuries. But it shall not succeed in destroying with its darkness the eternal spirit that built these monuments.

Our absolute faith in victory rests not on motives of a subjective or sentimental nature, but on positive and determined elements. If we were to doubt our victory, we should have to deny the existence of God who rules the destinies of man according to justice.

When we as soldiers of the Republic re-establish contact with the Italians on the other side of the Apennines, we shall have the pleasant surprise of finding more Fascism there than we left behind. The disillusionment, the misery, the political and moral abjection are exploding not only in the old phrase, "We were better off...," but in the revolts which from Palermo to Catania, and from Otranto to Rome itself, are creeping through every portion of "liberated" Italy.

The Italian people south of the Apennines have their spirits full of burning nostalgia. Enemy oppression on the one hand and the bestial persecution by the Allied Government on the other cannot help but give nourishment to the Fascist movement. It was easy to erase the external symbols; but to suppress the idea is impossible! (The crowd shouts, "Never!")

The six anti-Fascist parties are bustling to proclaim that Fascism is dead, because they sense that it is alive. Millions of Italians are comparing yesterday with today; yesterday, when the banner of the Fatherland was waving from the Alps to Equatorial Somalia, and Italians were one of the most respected peoples on earth.

There is no Italian who does not feel his heart beat faster at the sound of an African name, at the sound of a hymn that accompanied the legions from the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, at the sight of a colonial helmet. There are millions of Italians who from 1929 to 1939 lived through what can be called the epic poetry of the Fatherland. These Italians still exist; they are suffering, and they still believe and are ready to close ranks to resume the march in order to reconquer all that was lost and is today garrisoned between the dunes of Libya and the tropical fruit trees of Ethiopia by thousands and thousands of casualties, the flower of innumerable Italian families who have not forgotten and are unable to forget.

Already the signs signaling this resumption can be seen, especially here in this city of Milan, which is always at the forefront and warlike, and which the enemy has savagely struck but not in the least subdued.

Comrades! Dear Milanese comrades! It is Milan which must give, and shall give, the men, the arms, the will, and the signal of resurgence!

(Frequent applause and tireless cheers; Mussolini is forced by the crowd return to the podium several times.)