Thread by @NickWhithorn

24 January 1944, future Presidents of Italy, Giuseppe Saragat (1964-71, photo right) & Sandro Pertini (1978-85, photo left) escape together from Rome's Regina Coeli prison, where they were detained by the SS awaiting execution for participation in the Resistance [Thread] >> 1

Saragat and Pertini are both socialists, although Saragat is more moderate. Both men serve with the rank of Lieutenant in World War I, Saragat in the artillery, Pertini as a machine-gunner, and both are decorated for valour in the Isonzo campaign against Austria-Hungary >> 2

Pertini shows his more radical credentials by enlisting as a rank & file soldier, only becoming an officer when obliged to do so. He is wounded by phosgene gas in battle & left to die, saved only when one of his comrades forces medics to treat him at gunpoint >> 3

After the war, both men graduate, Saragat in Economics & Pertini in Law and Political Science. Saragat takes up employment in a bank, while Pertini practices as a lawyer in Savona, alternating with political activity. Both join the 'Partito Socialista Unitario' (PSU) >> 4

The PSU leader, Giacomo Matteotti (photo) is the main opponent of Mussolini after he comes to power in October 1922. On 30 May 1924, Matteotti makes a powerful speech in Parliament alleging fraud in the previous month's elections. On 10 June 1924, he is kidnapped by fascists >> 5

Matteotti's body is found two months later. Due to Matteotti's strong opposition and, later, an attempt to assasinate Mussolini, by PSU member Tito Zaniboni on 4 November 1925 (see linked thread) PSU members are frequently targeted by 'squadristi' >> 6

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1269647888021413888?s=19

Following, Zaniboni's assassination attempt, the PSU is outlawed, but a trio of leaders, one of whom is Saragat, refound the party in secret, with the new name 'Partito Socialista dei Lavoratori Italiani' (PSLI) >> 7

Pertini is very active and, thus, often targeted. His law office in Savona is trashed repeatedly, he is beaten in the street for wearing a red tie and, in June 1925, he is jailed for 8 months for distributing leaflets condemning the Monarchy for complicity with fascism >> 8

Another assassination attempt on Mussolini, by 15-year-old Anteo Zamboni, in Bologna on 31 October 1926 (see linked thread) sees the introduction of 'leggi eccezionali del fascismo'. These dissolve all political parties, except for the Fascist Party >> 9

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1322506568496304128?s=19

At this point, Saragat decides to go into exile & continue opposition to the régime from abroad, crossing the Swiss border in the night between 19 & 20 November 1926, accompanied by fellow PSLI leader Claudio Treves (photo) and proceeding to Vienna >> 10

Pertini, noted as an agitator, is sentenced to 5 years' internal exile under the new laws but, with the help of third PSLI leader, Carlo Rosselli (photo), manages to escape to Calvi in Corsica by boat on 11 December 1926, along with historic socialist leader Filippo Turati >> 11

From Corsica they take the ferry to Nice and then go on to Paris. Here, they join up with Treves, who has left Saragat in Vienna to travel to Paris, where numerous Italian socialists & antifascists have sought refuge to organise an opposition in exile >> 12

Pertini stays just a few months in Paris, earning a living doing odd jobs such as washing taxis (photo), before moving to Nice. This is a symbolically important city for Italian socialist exiles being the birthplace of Giuseppe Garibaldi >> 13

In Nice, Pertini again does odd jobs to support himself working as a labourer (photo, left) and even cinema extra (photo, right), while also writing, holding conferences & running a clandestine radio station to broadcast to Italy, until it is shut down by French police >> 14

In 1929, Saragat moves to Paris and helps to bring together the various socialist movements into a single party, the 'Partito Socialista Italiano' Saragat remains in Paris right up to the surrender of Italy in September 1943, earning a living as a wine sales rep >> 15

While Saragat follows his vocation as political leader & party functionary, Pertini follows his mission as an activist, returning to Italy on a false passport on 26 March 1929. He tries to organise a bomb attack on Mussolini, travelling to Pisa to meet a fellow conspirator >> 16

Here, on 14 April 1929, he is recognised in the street by a fascist lawyer from Savona, who is in the city to see a football match, and arrested by blackshirts. He is sentenced to 10 years & 9 months in prison. He is imprisoned on Santo Stefano Island & then moved to Turi >> 17

In prison, in Turi, he meets Antonio Gramsci, one of the founders of the Italian Communist Party. Despite different political views, the two men become good friends & Pertini writes numerous letters of protest demanding better conditions for Gramsci, who is in poor health >> 18

Pertini is also in poor health and many of his comrades and his mother campaign for his pardon. Pertini is irritated by this and explicitly refuses any idea of a pardon, as he refuses to recognise the authority of the fascist court that convicted him >> 19

In 1931, Pertini is transferred to Pianosa and then, in 1935, to Ponza. On 20 September 1940, despite having completed his sentence, he is moved to the island of Ventotene in internal exile as he is considered a threat to national order >> 20

Throughout his detention, Pertini is noted for campaigning for better conditions for prisoners and protesting against abuses of power by guards, with whom he often comes into conflict, frequently because he knows the prison rules & regulations better than they do >> 21

On 24 July 1943, the Grand Council of Fascism removes Benito Mussolini from power and Pietro Badoglio (photo) becomes the new head of government. With the fall of Mussolini, political prisoners begin to be released & Pertini is freed on 13 August 1943 >> 22

Badoglio's government excludes communist and anarchist prisoners from the amnesty and Pertini, in his usual campaigning mode, immeditely writes to the government from Ventotene protesting against this decision >> 23

When he arrives in Rome, Pertini and other socialists campaign for the release of all other political prisoners, finally convincing the government to concede by threatening to call a general strike >> 24

On 25 August, Pertini & Saragat participate in the Congress refounding of the Socialist Party, Saragat being elected to the leadership committee & appointed editor of party newspaper 'Avanti', while Pertini is given the task of the military organisation of the party in Rome >> 25

In this role, Pertini takes part in the unsuccessful defence of the city of Rome from 8-10 September following Italy's surrender to the Allies. The German forces occupy the city and Pertini, Saragat and all other socialists join the Resistance and go into hiding >> 26

On 15 October 1943, Saragat & Pertini, with other socialists, are arrested by Italian fascists on leaving a party meeting. Interrogated and beaten in a vain attempt to force them to reveal the whereabouts of other socialist leaders, they are then handed over to the SS >> 27

They are imprisoned in Number 6 Wing of Regina Coeli Prison, reserved for political prisoners, until 15 November 1943 when, following their death sentence, they are transferred to Number 3 Wing reserved for prisoners sentenced to death >> 28

Saragat says of Pertini in prison, "he asked for the prison uniform immediately, he demanded it. The Regina Coeli prison guards had a sort of inferiority complex when dealing with him, because he knew the prison regulations better than they did... >> 29

... he projected serenity, helping prisoners awaiting death, because even in prison he behaved as if he was at home. He wanted his prison clothes creaseless: he put them under the matress at night so they'd be perfect next morning. He was as elegant as the Duke of Edinburgh" >>30

In the meantime, members of the Matteoti Brigade of partisans are planning to get Pertini, Saragat and the 5 others arrested with them out of prison. Three of them Giuliano Vassalli, Peppino Gracceva & Massimo Severo Giannini worked at the Rome courthouse until 8 September >> 31

Before leaving, they stole headed notepaper & official stamps & they now use these to falsify an order for the release of the 7 men from prison. Also involved in the plan is a young lawyer, Filippo Lupis, as well as the prison doctor Alfredo Monaco & his wife Marcella >> 32

The falsified document is prepared. Lupis, who has access to the prison as a lawyer, takes it to the Director of the prison. By the time he gets through all the layers of bureaucracy, it is 6.30 p.m. and the Director puts off release to the next morning >> 33

This is too much of a risk, so Lupis dashes out of the prison and heads for a police station in Trastevere where prisoners have to report upon release. There is an officer here who is a socialist and knows of the plan because of his role >> 34

They call the prison and, pretending to be an assistant of the Chief of Police, Lupis demands that the men be released immediately on the basis of the release order. Whoever answers the phone falls for it and the men are set free >> 35

They are hidden in the house belonging to the prison doctor and his wife, which is situated inside the perimiter of the prison but with separate access. If they search for the fugitives, they will almost certainly not think to look on the prison grounds >> 36

Next day, they're smuggled out through the separate access & the rest is history...and what a history. Apart from Pertini & Saragat, future Presidents of Italy, one of those involved in freeing them, Giuliano Vassalli, became President of the Constitutional Court in 1999 >> 37

Following his escape, Saragat returned to editing the socialist newspaper 'Avanti', hiding in the house of fellow socialist Giovanni Salvatori, who would become one of the 335 victims of the Fosse Ardeatine massacre in March 1944 >> 38

After the war, Saragat was briefly the Italian Ambassador to France and then, from 25 June 1946 to 6 February 1947, chaired the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing the Constitution of the new Italian Republic >> 39

He sat in Parliament right up until his election as President on 29 December 1964, serving twice as Deputy PM & once as Foreign Minister. He was an orthodox President, never refusing to sign a law passed by Parliament & always appointing PMs in line with party choices >> 40

In May 1944, Pertini went to Milan to help organise propaganda & military resistance for the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (CLN). Recalled to Rome after its liberation in July, he found himself blocked in Florence, taking part in the liberation of the city in August >> 41

Growing quickly tired of Rome, he returned to Milan, flying from Naples to Lyon, then proceeding to Dijon & Chamonix & crossing the Mer de Glace glacier near Mont Blanc with the help of French skiing champion Émile Allais, before moving on to Aosta, Ivrea, Turin & Milan >> 42

In Milan, Pertini helps set up the military committee to prepare the insurrection and occupation of the city. Pertini himself announces the insurrection on the radio on 25 April 1945 (now celebrated in Italy as Liberation Day) >> 43

The CLN meets at 8 a.m. on 25 April 1945 in Milan & condemns all members of the Fascist Government to death, first & foremost Benito Mussolini, who is in Milan that day. You can read the story of his flight, capture & execution in this linked thread >> 44

https://twitter.com/NickWhithorn/status/1254074018887598081?s=19

After the war, Pertini is elected to the Constituent Assembly tasked with writing the Constitution of the new Republic, presided over by Saragat. From 1949 to 1951, he worked as editor of 'Avanti', Saragat's old job >> 45

From 1953 up to his election as President on 8 July 1978, Pertini represented the PSI in Parliament but, unlike Saragat, never held ministerial office. He did, however, serve as President of the Chamber of Deputies (equivalent to Speaker) from 1968 to 1976 >> 46

Pertini is credited with making the Presidency a more 'popular' institution. He was widely known as the 'People's President' & the 'Partisan President' because of his deeds in WW II. He had a way with people that no previous President had had & possibly none has since had >> 47

Pertini had great empathy and this endeared him to ordinary people. He openly demonstrated grief at the, sadly, many tragedies that occurred during his Presidency, such as the Bologna Station bombing in August 1980 >> 48

He also openly demonstrated joy. Perhaps, the lasting image that most Italians have of President Sandro Pertini is his celebration of Tardelli's goal in Italy's World Cup Final victory in Spain in 1982 // 49 ends