Luigi Sturzo

Luigi Sturzo was a priest and political organizer whose founding of the Italian Popular Party opened a new route for Catholics into national politics. The party’s parliamentary weight made it a decisive force in the struggle over Mussolini’s government. Sturzo’s insistence that Catholic participation retain its own principles and independence brought him into conflict with Benito Mussolini, who sought to weaken the party and change the electoral rules in his favor. Sturzo was forced to resign, then exiled to London as the contest over the party’s autonomy became part of the broader crisis of Italian parliamentary government.

Identity and political opening

Sturzo came from a noble Sicilian family and was ordained a priest by the bishop of Caltagirone. The account describes him as physically frail, but his political significance lay in the constituency he helped bring into public life. Before the creation of the Italian Popular Party, the Pope had forbidden Catholics to vote and participate in politics. Founded in 1919, Sturzo’s party challenged that exclusion: it was the first to call Catholics to take part in the nation’s political life.

The book places this foundation alongside the creation of the Fasci di Combattimento in the same year, presenting the two organizations as consequential and opposing responses to the political landscape. The Popular Party’s reach was national. Its 110 deputies, elected across the country, could tip parliamentary balances, help form governments, and provoke or resolve political crises. Catholic representation was no longer outside electoral politics; it had become a force that other parties had to reckon with.

A pivotal party and an uneasy accommodation

The Popular Party’s influence could affect political outcomes beyond its own immediate program. In the spring of 1922, at Sturzo’s bidding, its deputies blocked Giovanni Giolitti’s return to government. The book says this helped smooth the way for the Fascists. That consequence sits uneasily beside Sturzo’s later confrontation with Benito Mussolini: it shows how the party’s parliamentary decisions could shape the political opening available to its rivals, without making Sturzo a partner in the Fascist project.

After the March on Rome, the Popular Party joined Benito Mussolini’s coalition government, with ministers and undersecretaries participating. Sturzo, however, was not received by Benito Mussolini, who rejected the party founder’s political role and opposed what he regarded as the influence of priests in government. His refusal to meet Sturzo was not merely a personal slight in the narrative: it expressed a struggle over who could exercise political authority and whether the Catholic party would remain an independent actor rather than a subordinate coalition partner.

Divisions within the Popular Party

The party was not united in its response to Benito Mussolini. Its right wing, close to the Holy See’s hierarchy, favored broad cooperation and took part in the government. The left represented the “white” peasant leagues, which were repeatedly targeted by the Squadristi, and opposed cooperation. Between them stood the center led by Sturzo, with his young secretary Alcide De Gasperi. This group was prepared to collaborate only if Catholic moral principles were respected and the party retained full autonomy from the Fascists.

These divisions placed Sturzo at the center of a difficult political negotiation. Cooperation could preserve a place for the Popular Party in government, but unconditional cooperation risked surrendering the independence that made it a meaningful representative of Catholic voters. The danger was sharpened by the Fascist movement’s pressure on Catholic institutions and associations, including threats against churches. Mussolini’s government also offered concessions to the Holy See, among them changes concerning religious instruction in schools and the treatment of Church property. In the book’s account, these measures formed part of a political effort to isolate Sturzo and remove the obstacle his party posed to a more complete consolidation of power.

The electoral-law confrontation

The conflict came to a head over electoral reform. With only 36 Fascist deputies in the congress described by the book, Benito Mussolini could not rely on his parliamentary numbers alone to secure stable, lasting control. He therefore sought a new law that would give a majority of seats to the party winning a relative majority of votes. Giacomo Acerbo’s proposal would award two-thirds of the seats to the list that received the most votes, provided it passed a threshold of 25 percent. Sturzo’s party opposed the change because it threatened proportional representation and the independence of both the opposition and the Fascists’ allies.

At the Popular Party assembly in Turin, which opened on April 12, the question was whether Catholics would support the government on terms set by Benito Mussolini or defend their own political conditions. Sturzo prevailed without openly presenting himself as the victor. On April 15, the party adopted a platform making cooperation conditional on respect for its autonomy, the integrity of parliament, constitutional freedoms, and—above all—the preservation of proportional representation. This position made the electoral system the practical test of a larger principle: whether parliamentary partners could remain independent, or whether their participation would be used to establish a durable majority for the governing party.

The stakes increased when the bill reached the Chamber. Giolitti’s liberal followers had decided to accept the proposal, hoping that accommodation might tame Fascism; some socialist reformists were also willing to cooperate. The Popular Party’s deputies were therefore crucial to the remaining opposition. By then, Sturzo had been publicly urged by a representative of the Holy See not to create difficulties, while pressure on Catholic organizations continued. The party faced the choice of voting against the bill even if resistance appeared unlikely to succeed. Sturzo’s resignation removed its founder from that decision at the moment when each parliamentary vote mattered.

Forced resignation and exile

On July 10, Sturzo was forced to resign. The book presents his departure as the result of pressure from Benito Mussolini and the Holy See, which granted Mussolini’s demand that Sturzo’s political career end. His resignation left the Popular Party’s survival and response to the electoral bill in the hands of its deputies. It also marked a decisive loss for the party’s effort to negotiate with the government while retaining independent authority.

The separation was not permanent. On October 25, Sturzo was exiled to London. His removal occurred amid the widening crisis following the killing of Giacomo Matteotti and the growing repudiation of Fascism. The sequence underscores the political consequences of Sturzo’s conflict with Benito Mussolini: first, the party leader was displaced; then he was forced out of the country, while the party and parliament faced intensified pressure. In the book’s account, Sturzo’s importance rests not only on founding a Catholic party, but on making its autonomy, constitutional freedoms, and proportional representation central questions in the struggle over who would control Italy’s political institutions.