Luigi Sturzo Forced to Resign

Don Luigi Sturzo’s forced resignation on July 10 removed the founder of the Italian Popular Party from the political contest over the Acerbo Law. Under pressure from Benito Mussolini and the Holy See, Sturzo’s departure shifted responsibility to the party’s deputies: their votes became essential to any parliamentary resistance to a law that would award two-thirds of the seats to the list receiving a relative majority.

Political Pressure and the Resignation

The resignation came amid a broader weakening of the institutions that might restrain Fascist power. The government had already urged Fascist collaboration in maintaining public order and suppressing revolutionary attempts, provided the squads accepted official command. In the months that followed, Mussolini’s party asserted that its sections and combat squads formed an inseparable unit, while Prime Minister Bonomi’s efforts to regulate the squads failed to establish effective control. These circumstances frame Sturzo’s departure within a political climate where formal institutions remained in place but operated under mounting pressure.

The immediate pressure on Sturzo was both political and ecclesiastical. Mussolini demanded an end to his political career. Monsignor Pucci publicly urged him, on behalf of the Holy See, not to create problems; the account also describes threats of reprisals against Catholic institutions, associations, and churches. The Holy See yielded to the pressure, and Sturzo was forced to resign. His removal was therefore not simply an internal party change: it followed a contest in which the autonomy of Catholic political organization was constrained by the threat of consequences for the wider Church.

The Parliamentary Consequence

By the time the Chamber considered the Acerbo Law, the Italian Popular Party stood at a decisive crossroads. Its founder was gone, and the survival of the Catholic party was now in the hands of its deputies. Giovanni Giolitti’s liberal followers had decided to accept the bill, hoping that the electoral system would tame Fascism; some socialist reformists were also prepared to cooperate, invoking the protection of workers as their justification. The Popular Party’s votes thus carried particular weight in the remaining opposition.

The bill proposed to give two-thirds of the seats to the list that won a relative majority. If the Chamber did not reject it, the following election might be the last conducted under the existing competitive conditions. With Sturzo absent, the deputies faced a stark choice: vote against the measure, the only remaining parliamentary barrier identified in the account, or allow the law to pass. The resignation changed who had to act, even as the central question—whether Catholic deputies would resist the bill—remained unresolved in the immediate aftermath of his departure.

Significance

Sturzo’s forced resignation reveals how political pressure could operate through institutions beyond the parliamentary chamber. Mussolini’s demand, the Holy See’s intervention, and the threatened repercussions for Catholic organizations converged to remove a party leader without resolving the struggle over the law itself. The episode also exposes the vulnerability of parliamentary opposition: once its founder had been driven out, the Italian Popular Party’s capacity to resist depended on the decisions of its deputies, whose votes could determine whether a major alteration to electoral competition took effect.