Second Meeting of the Republican Council of Ministers
By Benito Mussolini
In the month since the first meeting of the Council of Ministers, the signs of recovery of the national spirit have increased.
The Italian people are slowly recovering from the deep abyss of humiliation and moral and material ruin which the traitors of July and September threw them into. The blueprints of recovery are already clear enough in the various fields of national life.
First of all in the military field. The new organization of the Italian Armed Forces is underway. The phase of dispersion, looting and self-demobilization is now over.
Marshal Graziani, now joined by General Gambara, will gather the aspiration of all Italians worthy of the name to resume our combat position as soon as possible on the side of our comrades of the Axis and Tripartite. The agreements with the German General Staff, already stipulated and perfected down to the last detail, allow us to prepare new units whose ranks will be furnished by volunteers as well as by new conscripts reporting for duty.
The fundamental law on the Armed Forces—which the Council of Ministers is called upon to examine—constitutes the secure and rational basis for the creation of a strong and modern Military Organization, responsive to our needs and adjusted to our experiences in these last four years of war.
The new Navy and Air Force will be promptly organized on the basis of this fundamental law; from this moment on it is expected that the Anti-Aircraft Defense will pass entirely to the Air Ministry. The units are already in the process of being established.
As already announced, the MVSN will be an integral part of the Army and will form the Blackshirt Corps, similar to the Alpini and Bersaglieri corps.
Rearrangement is underway in the political-administrative field with the appointment of the provincial leaders and quaestors, with the formation of the Republican Fascist Leagues, with the establishment of the Provincial Extraordinary Tribunals, and with the preparation of the Grand Constituent Assembly, which will lay the solid foundation of the Italian Social Republic.
In the monetary-economic field, the events of July-August-September have had the most serious repercussions, which was truly inevitable. But even in this field, despite the shortage of supplies and communications difficulties, there are signs of improvement.
The agreement between the German and Italian governments concerning the expenses of the German forces in Italy and the consequent withdrawal of occupation marks is very important and is destined to have most favorable results in the monetary field, as it indicates—through circulation control—the sharp anti-inflationist tendency that the Republican Fascist Government intends to follow.
To conclude this schematic exposition, I want to underline the following two facts:
1) Italian soldiers in various sectors voluntarily resumed their place alongside their German comrades.
2) Public order in the provinces controlled by us is to be considered normal now.
