Mario Pannunzio

Mario Pannunzio (5 March 1910 – 10 February 1968) was an Italian journalist and politician. As a journalist he was the director in charge of the daily newspaper Risorgimento Liberale (Liberal reawakening) in the 1940s and of the weekly political magazine Il Mondo (The World) in the 1950s. As a politician he was a co-founder of the revived Italian Liberal Party in the 1940s and then of the Radical Party in 1955.

Life Early years Mario Pannunzio was born in Lucca, a prosperous Tuscan city a short distance inland to the north of Pisa. He was the second son of Guglielmo Pannunzio, a lawyer of strong communist proclivities originally from the Abruzzo region.

The grade of his university degree was indifferent: In 1931 he took part in the "Prima quadriennale d'arte nazionale" (art exhibition) which ran from January till August 1931, exhibiting several pictures including a portrait of his sister, Sandrina. By 1934, however, he had abandoned painting, turning instead to literary criticism. He got to know Attilio Riccio, formerly a fellow law student, who introduced him to this new milieu, and joined the editorial team of "Il Saggiatore", a short-lived left-field cultural magazine which had originated as a student publication.

Between 1933 and 1935 he was involved in three magazines, founded with a group of friends: "Oggi. Settimanale di lettere ed arti" (later "Rassegna mensile") was produced between May 1931 and May 1934. The "Oggi" group was formed by Pannunzio, together with Antonio Delfini, Eurialo De Michelis, Guglielmo Serafini and Elio Talarico. The project elaborated a debate on the renewal of Italian literature. The magazine claimed for itself a "neo-realist orientation" over the issues of the age, and contrasted this with the more traditional existing approach represented by publications such as "Strapaese" and "Il Selvaggio", both of which opposed the avant-garde extremes encountered during the early decades of the twentieth century. Other sources state simply that "Oggi" was closed down after February 1942 at the request of Georg von Mackensen, the German ambassador. "Caratteri", launched in March 1935 and surviving till July of that year. Pannunzio founded it together with Arrigo Benedetti and Antonio Delfini.

These early experiences of journalism would be highly significant: Panunzio understood "the enormous influence of journalism", a form of communication he had been inclined to overlook when, as a very young man, he had been preoccupied with communicating through art and literary criticism.

It was in 1935 that Mario Pannunzio married Mary Malina, a young Hungarian actress whom he had met at a Rome theatre. The marriage was childless.

Later that year the Mussolini government fell. Pannunzio joined with Leo Longanesi to compose the editorial which appeared in Il Messaggero on 26/27 July 1943, celebrating the return of liberty. During the German occupation of Rome (which began on 8 September 1943), Pannunzio formed a clandestine liberal grouping with like minded friends in the city, "the Italian liberal movement". The mouthpiece of the movement, "Risorgimento Liberale"("Liberal Re-awakening") was a notionally daily newspaper, published at irregular intervals during the second half of 1943 and thereafter till the liberation of Rome (4 June 1944). During December 1943 Pannunzio was arrested by Nazis while he was in the newspaper's print works: he spent several months in the Regina Coeli (prison).

At the end of 1947 Roberto Lucifero was appointed General Secretary of the Italian Liberal Party. This reflected events at the Party Congress of November 1947 which had been widely interpreted as a take-over by the party's right wing. (Lucifero himself was a fervent monarchist, which in the eyes of some was the next worst thing to a closet fascist.) Pannunzio now joined the former party leader, Leone Cattani, and others, in resigning his party membership. Later he joined Altiero Spinelli's European Federalist Movement. who did the same.

The Radical Party In 1954 the Italian Liberal Party elected a new party secretary, Giovanni Malagodi which was widely perceived s another lurch to the right. On 15 July 1954 Pannunzio, Carandini, Libonati and Paggi reacted by resigning - in Panninzio's case for the second time - from the Liberal Party.

By 1962 it was the Radical Party that was fracturing. Members elected that year to the party national executive were Bruno Villabruna, Leopoldo Piccardi, Ernesto Rossi and Marco Pannella. Pannunzio and Benedetti broke with the majority and withdrew. The causes of the breach were a combination of political and personal differences, with additional bitterness triggered by allegations on the activities of Leopoldo Piccardi during the Fascist years. It was believed that Piccardi had collaborated in 1941. Ernesto Rossi insisted that Piccardi should therefore be expelled from the party, but he failed to obtain a majority for this. Pannunzio was among those who opposed the expulsion proposal. Rossi became determined to get his own back against Pannunzio. He set about obtaining and photocopying articles from the weekly magazine "Oggi" covering the years from 1939 to 1943, in order to find material that he might use to challenge Pannunzio's own anti-fascist credentials. When Pannunzio discovered that Rossi was in the process of building up a personal dossier on him, the break between the two former friends was complete. Relations between Pannunzio and Rossi became "icy": Rossi's contributions to Il Mondo ceased.

Death Il Mondo (The World) closed in March 1966.