Resignation of the Salandra government

On 13 May 1915 the Italian Prime Minister Antonio Salandra tendered the resignation of his government to King Victor Emmanuel III. Together with him the foreign minister Sidney Sonnino, who with the Prime Minister had been leading Italy towards war, also resigned. A British chronology of the war records the two steps separately, but it was a single decision: the cabinet resigned as a whole. The crisis broke out at a moment when the country was already secretly bound to the Entente and the Triple Alliance had been renounced.

Giolitti’s return

Salandra and Sonnino had signed the London agreement on 26 April, which committed Italy to entering the war within a month. But they did not have parliament behind them. The majority of deputies were attached to Giovanni Giolitti, five times prime minister and the most influential politician in the country, who believed that Italy could obtain “a good deal” without war, through negotiations with Austria-Hungary. Vienna, under pressure from Berlin, kept making new offers.

On 9 May Giolitti arrived in Rome, greeted at the station by hostile shouts from students and nationalists. He spoke with the King and with Salandra, arguing that the war would be long, that the army was not ready for it and that it was better to continue talks with Vienna and Berlin. On 12 May his supporters showed their strength. About 300 deputies, according to some sources 320, and about a hundred senators left visiting cards at his Rome flat as a sign of support. The Chamber had 508 deputies, so this was a clear majority. The government, which was to present parliament with its consent to war, had to reckon with losing the vote.

The resignation

On 12 and 13 May the council of ministers met. Salandra reported on his conversation with Giolitti and, with his colleagues’ agreement, decided to resign. The King could now entrust the government to someone who had the support of the majority, but he would then have to withdraw from the commitments to the Entente, signed with his knowledge. For a monarchy that had just broken its alliance with Austria-Hungary, this would be a very risky step. According to many historians, the resignation was therefore also a way of shifting responsibility: it was now up to Giolitti and parliament to decide whether to take upon themselves the breaking of the agreement with the Entente.

The news of the resignation caused a storm in Italy. Supporters of the war, known as interventionists, took to the streets of the big cities. In Rome Gabriele D’Annunzio harangued the crowds, calling Giolitti “the schemer of Dronero” and inciting his listeners against him. On the morning of 14 May several hundred students broke through police and cavalry cordons to Montecitorio, the seat of the Chamber of Deputies. Giolitti’s flat had to be guarded by troops and police. In the following days the King held consultations. Giolitti did not want to take power, and the other politicians who were approached also refused. On 16 May Victor Emmanuel III rejected Salandra’s resignation.