Giolitti ruled the scene of Italian politics from the early ‘900 to the first world war, and he came again to the government after the war during the “red period” of two years, in a political condition in which his methods were surpassed from the coming of the common parties.

In 1892 he came for the first time at the head of the govern, after the fell of Crispi. Immediately he had to face toward the Sicilian discontent, and the “bunch of labors”, constituted by farmers and coal miners. Initially he maintained a neutral conduct, sure that the State didn’t have to intervene in the riots, but when in 1893 the complaint became more bitter and even in North some riots burst; these behavior was looking not to much appropriate. When the scandal of the Roman Bank came to light, his government fell down and Crispi came again to the head of the State. Even if some voices asserted that his career was already finished, the early fifty years of the new century could see his figure prevail again in the Govern from 1903 to 1914. The peculiarity of his thought was understood when in a speech in the parliament he said that preserving the pays low, they were committing an injustice, but also a politic and economic mistake: it was a politic mistake because they could antagonize the majority of the social classes; and it was an economic mistake because is impossible to make richness without money to spent. To make the pays higher they didn’t have to contrast the strikes of the labors: it was his politic program. Another way with which Giolitti tried to make the economic development faster, was the reform on the pensions, on the safeguard of the women’s and children’s work. Giolitti was supported by his bureaucratic system; this great mediator had two purposes: have a good dialog with the socialists and with the catholic. But Filippo Turati, the socialist’s leader, refused to take part at this government, having fear of the recoils in his party. He as well as he opened to the labors, he take care for the South, and tried, with some finance helps, to let upraise the industrial area near Naples and enhanced the railway net, and let built aqueduct in Puglia. Despite it, the Southern conditions didn’t get better, and there were some characters as Salvemini, an important person for the left and for the South, that label Giolitti “the delinquency’s minister”, denouncing the association between his men and mafia. When the international economic crisis, worsen the struggle of the labors, he didn’t know how to face toward well the situation. After the election of 1909, that could see the power of the socialist stronger, Giolitti understood that he have to leave the government to Luigi Luttazzi, that immediately started a colonial politic. The socialists supported that it was a false propaganda, the Italian soldiers were obligated to fight against the fierce populations of the Northern countries of Africa. The war was long and bloody, and the fear of the socialist was justify, and to tie again the relationships, Giolitti make approve the law about the universal male suffrage: the men more than twenty (thirty if they were illiterate) could vote; in this election there was a change: the presence of the catholic in support to the liberals, thanks to “Gentiloni’s pact”. After the election of 1913, the parliament was too fragment for the presence of the catholic and the socialists, that couldn’t be checked by Giolitti, who gave the resignation.

By Simone Cagnoni