Mussolini's Alleged Involvement
The involvement of Mussolini in the assassination is much debated.
Historians suggest some different theories. The main biographer of Mussolini, Renzo De Felice, was convinced that the Duce was innocent. Even Aurelio Lepre and Emilio Gentile thought that Mussolini did not want the death of Matteotti.
The former socialist and anti-fascist journalist Carlo Silvestri in 1924 was a harsh accuser of Mussolini; later, when he joined Italian Social Republic, he affirmed that Mussolini showed him Matteotti Case's papers, and eventually he changed his mind. Silvestri became a strong defender of Mussolini's innocence in Matteotti's murder, and suggested that the socialist was killed by a plot, in order both to damage Mussolini's attempt to raise a leftist government (with the participation of Socialists and Popolari) and to cover some scandals in which the Crown (with the American oil company Sinclair Oil) was involved.
De Felice argued that maybe Mussolini himself was a political victim of a plot, and almost surely he was damaged by the crisis that followed the murder. Many fascists left the Party, and his government was about to collapse. Moreover, his secret attempt to bring Socialists and Populars into a new reformist government was ruined.
On the other hand, other historians of the time, including Justin Pollard and Denis Mack Smith, thought Mussolini was probably aware of the assassination plot but that it was ordered and organized by someone else.
Mauro Canali suggests that Mussolini probably did order the murder, as Matteotti uncovered and wanted to make public incriminating documents proving that Mussolini and his associates sold to an American oil company—Sinclair Oil—exclusive rights to all Italian oil reserves.
Read more about this topic: Giacomo Matteotti
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