Alfredo Rocco

Alfredo Rocco is a jurist who, as the new president of the Chamber of Deputies, gives Giacomo Matteotti the floor on May 30, 1924. In the turbulent session at Montecitorio, Rocco tries to maintain the proceedings while Matteotti delivers a speech amid escalating hostility, making the presiding officer’s role a measure of how precarious parliamentary order has become.

Identity and Position

Rocco is identified as a jurist and the chamber’s new president. His part in the scene is institutional: he recognizes Matteotti’s request to speak and grants him the floor. The session soon tests what that authority can accomplish when members and spectators alike turn the chamber into a place of sustained tumult.

Presiding Over Matteotti’s Speech

The disturbance begins before Matteotti has uttered a word, with murmuring from the benches and galleries. As he continues, interruptions and threats recur. Rocco rings the bell frantically and urges the speaker to avoid provocations. He nevertheless gives Matteotti the floor again, qualifying the permission with a warning to proceed prudently.

The outbursts come from across the chamber, while fascist deputies bang their clenched fists on desks and the public roars from the crowded galleries. The speech continues through a stretch of time variously estimated at an hour and a half, two hours, or as many as three. Rocco’s bell and interventions do not end the uproar; they mark repeated attempts to contain it within parliamentary procedure.

Limits of Parliamentary Authority

Rocco’s conduct combines restraint with alarm. He seeks to regulate the debate and return the floor to Matteotti, yet the narrative presents his caution as if he, too, feared for his life. That detail places the presiding officer inside the danger he is meant to control: his office retains the forms of authority, but threats and disorder dictate the conditions under which it can be exercised. Matteotti eventually reaches the end of his speech, while Rocco’s interventions reveal how little the chamber’s formal procedures can guarantee calm or safety.