Boselli becomes prime minister of Italy

The British chronology of the war states that on 15 June 1916 Paolo Boselli became Prime Minister of Italy. On that day, according to the Austrian official history, King Victor Emmanuel III entrusted him with forming a government after the resignation of Antonio Salandra. The composition of the cabinet was ready on 17 June, and the new ministers were sworn in before the King on 18 June. Italian sources count the Boselli government’s term of office from that day, although some studies give 19 June.

The oldest of the deputies

Boselli was born on 8 June 1838 in Savona, into the family of a notary of liberal convictions. He was a lawyer by training. He became deputy for Savona in 1870 and was one of the oldest members of the Chamber of Deputies. He was Minister of Education in Francesco Crispi’s government, and later Minister of Agriculture, of Finance and of the Treasury. He was regarded as a politician of the moderate right, attached to the traditions of the Risorgimento and close to Salandra. In May 1915 the King had offered him the formation of a government in place of Salandra, but Boselli declined and advised keeping the existing prime minister. On 20 May 1915, as the senior member (decano) of the Chamber, he was rapporteur of the bill granting the government extraordinary powers for the duration of the war. In December 1915 he received Italy’s highest decoration, the Supreme Order of the Most Holy Annunciation.

Boselli’s candidacy was put forward by Salandra himself. According to the Italian Biographical Dictionary, Boselli was the only politician of such great authority who could embody the cause of the war without giving it the colours of any party. That is precisely why he could count on the support of a broad majority. At the time of his appointment he was 78 years old.

A government of national unity

Boselli wanted to include in the government all groups except the open opponents of the war. He even held talks with Luigi Facta, an associate of Giovanni Giolitti, to whom he wanted to entrust the Ministry of Justice. This alarmed the supporters of the war, and Facta did not join the government. The cabinet that emerged was very broad and very large. Sidney Sonnino, who had directed Italian diplomacy since the autumn of 1914, remained Foreign Minister. The Interior Ministry went to Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, the reformist socialist Ivanoe Bonomi became Minister of Public Works, and the leader of the same party, Leonida Bissolati, minister without portfolio, tasked with maintaining liaison between the government and the Supreme Command. The government also included the Radicals Ettore Sacchi (justice) and Luigi Fera (posts), the Republican Ubaldo Comandini as minister without portfolio, and Filippo Meda, who took over the Ministry of Finance as what is generally considered the first representative of the Catholic movement in a government of united Italy. The war and navy portfolios were retained by General Paolo Morrone and Admiral Camillo Corsi. For the new tasks a Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Labour and a Ministry of Maritime and Railway Transport were also created.

Only the Italian Socialist Party, which had opposed the war from the start, remained outside the government. In his programme declaration Boselli announced an intensification of the war effort, close cooperation with the allies, the regulation of food supplies and a curb on luxury. On 28 June he presented the cabinet to the Chamber, and at the beginning of July he won an enormous majority there, with several dozen socialists voting against.

The broad coalition, however, was a balance of forces rather than a community of views. Bissolati, Sonnino and Orlando saw the aims of the war differently, and Boselli himself, regarded by many contemporaries as a man without opinions of his own or firmness, usually confined himself to appeals for national unity. In disputes with the Supreme Command he gave way to Cadorna. His government lasted until the autumn of 1917 and fell after the defeat at Caporetto.