Marcello Soleri (28 April 1882 – 22 July 1945) was an Italian politician and an officer of the prestigious Alpini infantry corps. He is widely viewed as one of the leading exponents of political liberalism in 20th-century Italy. Soleri was a Member of Parliament between 1913 and 1929. During 1921/22, he served successively as Italian Minister of Finance and more briefly as Italian Minister of War. After the fall of Mussolini, he returned to government in 1944 as Italian Minister of Treasury under Prime Minister Ivanoe Bonomi.
Life Provenance and early years Marcello Soleri was born at Cuneo, a mid-sized town in the hill country between Turin and the sea. He was the younger, by two years, of his parents' two sons. Modesto Soleri (1847–1898), his father, came originally from the little town of Dronero, and had become the chief engineer of the province of Cuneo. Modesto Soleri, who had become involved in politics at a municipal level, had been a friend since their school days together of Edmondo de Amicis, with whose evolving "Christian-liberal-socialist" beliefs he was (albeit less stridently than his friend) in sympathy. In 1894, during a period of heightened government nervousness, Modesto Soleri was briefly imprisoned for suspected socialist conspiracy. Marcello Soleri's mother, born Elvira Peano, was a sister to Camillo Peano: this was a political family.
Several sources recall that Modesto Soleri inculcated in his sons, Elvio and Marcello, a powerful sense of duty. Marcello was only 16 when his father died, however, and the boys' mother was obliged to relocate to Turin and rely on discrete support from friends and relatives to sustain the family. Marcello Soleri's father also saw to it that his boys were well versed in "Doveri degli uomini" (loosely, "The duties of men") and "Doveri dell'uomo" (loosely, "Duties of man"), two influential works by, respectively, the nineteenth century Torinese patriot-poet Silvio Pellico and Giuseppe Mazzini the prophet and mentor of Italian unification.
Having enrolled at the university to study Law, Marcello Soleri received his degree in 1903, having concluded his studies with a dissertation on family law, "Vizi del consenso nel matrimonio", which almost immediately he had published. He had only been able to complete his undergraduate studies thanks to the financial generosity of family friends, notably the leading politician Giovanni Giolitti. The Giolittis, like the Soleris, came from the Maira valley. While still a student he had also boosted his income and developed his political awareness by embarking on a part-time career in journalism, contributing to the "Sentinella delle Alpi", a daily newspaper published in Cuneo and owned by Tancredi Galimberti, an ambitious politician who was a loyal supporter of Giolitti (until 1903 when an apparently firm political alliance was abruptly replaced by a shrill political rivalry between the two men). Soleri's first article for the "Sentinella" appeared in November 1900.
Lawyer and political networker After leaving university in 1904 he sustained his activities as a part-time journalist, contributing to national legal publications such as "Archivio giuridico" and "Giurisprudenza italiana". Meanwhile, he returned to Cuneo where he embarked on a legal career, working for the legal practice run by Giacinto Dalmassi. In 1907 he married Tisbe Sanguinetti, the daughter of a senior army officer. The couple's son (and their only child), another Modesto Soleri, was born a year later.
Like many young people, Marcello Soleri developed a youthful passion for socialism, which at that time was still considered to be firmly outside the political mainstream by most members of the "haute bourgeoisie" in northern Italy. He became a frequent visitor to the offices of the "Associazione generale degli operai" (loosely, "General Workers' Association") in central Turin. However, it was also characteristic of many enthusiastic young socialist intellectuals of the period that around 1905 he turned to a more unambiguous democratic liberalism, which became the political foundation for the rest of his life.
During his student years Soleri enrolled as a member of the recently formed Corda Fratres, a quasi-masonic student fraternity. This quickly became the basis for a network that would be supportive of his political career. The network of former student members of the Corda Frartres seems to have been particularly powerful in Turin which during the early part of the twentieth century was Tancredi Galimberti, for whose influential regional newspaper Soleri had worked as early as 1900. Following the 1909 elections, however, in which the rivalry between Giolitti and Galimberti was very much in evidence, Marcello Soleri increasingly found his support solicited by Giolitti who was keen to attract the political support of moderate catholic opinion as a bulwark against socialism. Soleri's political networking among the "big families" of the region over the previous few years had given clear indication of his own political ambitions, and the young lawyer now emerged as a leader of liberal democratic currents in the region, backed by Giolitti, and so increasingly critical of the political trends promoted by Galimberti. He also founded a new daily newspaper, the "Corriere subalpino", to help raise his own political profile.
A dynamic mayor
On 28 July 1912 communal elections were held in which, despite being only 30, Marcello Soleri was elected mayor of Cuneo, selected by his backers, according to one source, on account of his electability, combining as he did the dress sense of one of Alexander Dumas' musketeers with the abundant hairstyle of the true artist. As a liberal-democrat, he drew together, from among his fellow councillors, a coalition of support that included radical democrats, a banker, a prosperous silks entrepreneur and Angelo Segre, leader of the local "Vita Nova" lodge. He pushed through a formidable job-creation programme which featured a new "urban plan" which incorporated a fine new railway station for Cuneo, and also involved a gigantic viaduct crossing the Stura (later renamed the "Soleri Viaduct)". These high-profile projects, both completed in 1937, provided construction workers with lucrative employment in the area for a quarter century.
National politician Marcello Soleri himself remained in office as mayor for little more than a year. At the elections of October/November 1913 he successfully transitioned to national politics, as before standing for election as a democratic liberal candidate, and backed by a coalition of influential supporters of a distinctly masonic tinge. Also standing for election was Tancredi Galimberti, who made a pitch for the support of catholic voters, signalling his support for the so-called Gentiloni pact, which on the national scale operated in favour of "Prime Minister" Giolitti. In their home district of Cuneo, however, Giolitti successfully urged Gentiloni to persuade his backers not to apply the pact. As a result of Gentiloni's intervention in the Cuneo region large numbers of catholic voters were persuaded to abstain from voting, and because of their abstentions, after twenty years Galimberti lost his seat. Soleri benefitted from those catholic abstentions, however, and was elected to the legislature. His first intervention in the chamber was a somewhat inglorious affair and took place on 5 December 1913: it involved a heated discussion with the socialist Carlo Altobelli. Solari allegedly rejected Altobelli's assertion that his election success had resulted from interventions in the Cuneo region by "Prime Minister" Giolitti, insisting instead that it reflected his achievements during his short time as mayor of the town. He made a more striking contribution on 12 June 1914 in defence of small-holders who found themselves threatened, he said, by new taxes on assets which were being proposed by the recently installed first Salandra government. The coalition was dominated by the Liberal Union (party) of which Antonio Salandra and Giovanni Giolitti were leading members, but Salandra, in particular, came from the party's conservative wing, and Soleri voted against this government almost constantly. He clashed seriously in the chamber with "Prime Minister" Salandra himself in January 1915 over government delays in delivering relief for the thousands of surviving victims from that month's deadly Avezzano earthquake in the hills east of Rome.
First World War War broke out in northern Europe in July 1914, and Italy faced intense international pressure to join in. On 19 August 1914 Marcello Soleri applied to the Ministry of War to be drafted into the Alpini infantry corps in the event of Italy being dragged into the fighting. The party leader, Giovanni Giolitti, openly opposed participation in the war, citing Italy's lack of military preparedness. Many (though not all) of the country's leading politicians agreed. Soleri had close political friends and allies on both sides of the "grand debate" and his stance in the ensuing months was also "neutralist", but his position was nevertheless significantly more nuanced and his speeches on the matter less polemical than those of Giolitti. In February 1915 Cesare Battisti, with support from the town's "Vita Nova" masonic lodge, visited Cuneo to argue the case in favour of military intervention, not alongside Italy's Triple Alliance partners but in support of the anti-Austrian "entente". Cuneo was the political backyard both of Giovanni Giolitti and of Marcello Soleri. Both men lined up as "neutralists", but Soleri nevertheless intervened to ensure that the interventionist Battisti might use the town theatre to address his audience.
In response to British promises of post-war territorial aggrandisement, Italy entered the war against Austria and Germany in April 1915. On 17 June 1915 Soleri joined the 2nd Alpini Regiment with the rank of Sottotenente (loosely, "Second lieutenant"). He participated in the military operations in what became known as the Carnia zone and, from May 1917, on the adjacent Isontino front. On 17 May he was badly wounded in the savage fighting at Monte Vodice. He was hospitalised for approximately six months after which, in November 1917, he returned to the frontline, this time at Monte Pasubio. Soon afterwards he suffered a nervous collapse which forced him to return to Cuneo where he remained for the rest of the war.
In September 1917 Marcello Soleri was awarded a silver Medal of Military Valor and promoted to the rank of captain.
Twenty years between wars Between June 1919 and May 1920 Soleri served the first Nitti government as an undersecretary of state at the Navy Ministry. He served the short-lived second Nitti government as undersecretary of state at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labour. He was also appointed High Commissioner for Food Procurement and Distribution. In June 1920 a new government signalled the return to office as "Prime Minister" of his old mentor Giovanni Giolitti who confirmed the appointment. Soleri therefore made an important contribution to the parliamentary process which abolished the "political" (controlled) pricing of bread, a fiscally necessary move that was politically unpopular.
In July 1921 Ivanoe Bonomi formed Italy's first Socialist-led coalition government. Marcello Soleri joined the cabinet as Finance Minister. His principal task in this capacity involved the reduction or reversal of the radical taxation measures on assets and on the "super-profits of war" which had been imposed by the previous government.