52 Facts About Marcello Soleri

Marcello Soleri was an Italian politician and an officer of the prestigious Alpini infantry corps.

Marcello Soleri is widely viewed as one of the leading exponents of political liberalism in 20th-century Italy.

Marcello Soleri was born at Cuneo, a mid-sized town in the hill country between Turin and the sea.

Marcello Soleri was the younger, by two years, of his parents' two sons.

Modesto Marcello Soleri, who had become involved in politics at a municipal level, had been a friend since their school days together of Edmondo de Amicis, with whose evolving "Christian-liberal-socialist" beliefs he was in sympathy.

In 1894, during a period of heightened government nervousness, Modesto Marcello Soleri was briefly imprisoned for suspected socialist conspiracy.

Marcello Soleri's mother, born Elvira Peano, was a sister to Camillo Peano: this was a political family.

Several sources recall that Modesto Soleri inculcated in his sons, Elvio and Marcello, a powerful sense of duty.

Marcello Soleri was only 16 when his father died and the boys' mother was obliged to relocate to Turin and rely on discrete support from friends and relatives to sustain the family.

Marcello Soleri's father saw to it that his boys were well versed in "Doveri degli uomini" and "Doveri dell'uomo", two influential works by, respectively, the nineteenth century Torinese patriot-poet Silvio Pellico and Giuseppe Mazzini the prophet and mentor of Italian unification.

Marcello Soleri had only been able to complete his undergraduate studies thanks to the financial generosity of family friends, notably the leading politician Giovanni Giolitti.

The couple's son, another Modesto Marcello Soleri, was born a year later.

Marcello Soleri became a frequent visitor to the offices of the "Associazione generale degli operai" in central Turin.

The network of former student members of the Corda Frartres seems to have been particularly powerful in Turin which during the early part of the twentieth century was Tancredi Galimberti, for whose influential regional newspaper Marcello Soleri had worked as early as 1900.

Marcello Soleri founded a new daily newspaper, the "Corriere subalpino", to help raise his own political profile.

On 28 July 1912 communal elections were held in which, despite being only 30, Marcello Soleri was elected mayor of Cuneo, selected by his backers, according to one source, on account of his electability, combining as he did the dress sense of one of Alexander Dumas' musketeers with the abundant hairstyle of the true artist.

Marcello Soleri benefitted from those catholic abstentions and was elected to the legislature.

Marcello Soleri's first intervention in the chamber was a somewhat inglorious affair and took place on 5 December 1913: it involved a heated discussion with the socialist Carlo Altobelli.

Marcello Soleri made a more striking contribution on 12 June 1914 in defence of small-holders who found themselves threatened, he said, by new taxes on assets which were being proposed by the recently installed first Salandra government.

The coalition was dominated by the Liberal Union of which Antonio Salandra and Giovanni Giolitti were leading members, but Salandra, in particular, came from the party's conservative wing, and Marcello Soleri voted against this government almost constantly.

Marcello Soleri clashed seriously in the chamber with "Prime Minister" Salandra himself in January 1915 over government delays in delivering relief for the thousands of surviving victims from that month's deadly Avezzano earthquake in the hills east of Rome.

On 19 August 1914 Marcello Soleri applied to the Ministry of War to be drafted into the Alpini infantry corps in the event of Italy being dragged into the fighting.

Marcello Soleri had close political friends and allies on both sides of the "grand debate" and his stance in the ensuing months was "neutralist", but his position was nevertheless significantly more nuanced and his speeches on the matter less polemical than those of Giolitti.

On 17 June 1915 Marcello Soleri joined the 2nd Alpini Regiment with the rank of Sottotenente.

Marcello Soleri participated in the military operations in what became known as the Carnia zone and, from May 1917, on the adjacent Isontino front.

Marcello Soleri was hospitalised for approximately six months after which, in November 1917, he returned to the frontline, this time at Monte Pasubio.

In September 1917 Marcello Soleri was awarded a silver Medal of Military Valor and promoted to the rank of captain.

Between June 1919 and May 1920 Marcello Soleri served the first Nitti government as an undersecretary of state at the Navy Ministry.

Marcello Soleri served the short-lived second Nitti government as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labour.

Marcello Soleri was appointed High Commissioner for Food Procurement and Distribution.

Marcello Soleri therefore made an important contribution to the parliamentary process which abolished the "political" pricing of bread, a fiscally necessary move that was politically unpopular.

That was the context in which, in August 1922, Marcello Soleri agreed to join the new Facta government, this time serving as Minister of War.

Marcello Soleri was neither unreserved in his backing of the anti-fascists such as Taddei, Amendola and Alessio, nor supportive of those, such as the "Prime Minister", Riccio and Schanzer, each of whom who favoured attempted collaboration with the new force.

Marcello Soleri lined up with the moderate ministers, including Teofilo Rossi and Fulci.

Nevertheless, when nemesis struck at the end of October 1922, it was Marcello Soleri who attempted to launch a decisive response to the Fascist take-over bid.

Marcello Soleri nevertheless took care to maintain cordial personal relations with the nation's future leader, while at the same time very clearly separating his own ideals and political perspectives from those espoused by the National Fascist Party.

Marcello Soleri emerged as one of the leading exponents of an anti-fascist position, which put those liberals favouring a collaborationist stance firmly in the minority.

Marcello Soleri continued to speak out, using his parliamentary membership to deliver a succession of tough and uncompromising speeches against post-democratic Fascist legislation during 1925 and 1926.

Marcello Soleri spoke against laws to dispense with the services of the services of public officials on 19 June 1925 and against laws restricting press freedom on 20 June 1925.

Marcello Soleri remained in touch with the king till the end of 1940, which was facilitated by the king's regular summer vacations in the refreshingly simple surroundings of Sant'Anna di Valdieri nearby.

Marcello Soleri stayed in touch with old friend and former commander from their time together on the front at Monte Vodice in 1917, Marshal Pietro Badoglio, the man who would take over leadership of the government in July 1943.

Marcello Soleri advised the king to dismiss Mussolini and to try and arrange a "non-political" government that could enter urgently into negotiations with representatives of the Anglo-American alliance.

Marcello Soleri backed the idea of a government to be headed up by Badoglio, and recommended the appointment as ministers of Leopoldo Piccardi and Leonardo Severi.

Marcello Soleri thereby drew strong opposition from Liberal Party grandees who were in town, lobbying for the creation of a replacement government to be jointly headed up by Badoglio and Ivanoe Bonomi.

Marcello Soleri later explained that he stood aside from the new government himself to ensure that Badoglio would receive in full the credit for disengagement from the German alliance.

Marcello Soleri continued to take part in meetings of the National Liberation Committee, but these were becoming increasingly fractious.

Marcello Soleri left the seminary on 6 February 1944, entrusting his manuscript to the custody of Rector Roberto Ronca.

Meanwhile, between February and June 1944 Marcello Soleri found refuge in the homes in the city of a succession of friends and relatives, taking care never to stay in any one house for very long.

Marcello Soleri, now Treasury Minister, was a senior member of it.

Marcello Soleri was active in finding ways to support desperately needed post-war reconstruction work, obtaining funds in various ways, both conventional and "imaginative".

Alongside his political commitments, through years of peace and of war, Marcello Soleri was one of those who did everything he could to sustain the National Alpini [military veterans'] Association.

Marcello Soleri served as association president between September 1943 and July 1945.