Italian politician (1873–1942)
Aldo Oviglio (7 December 1873–19 August 1942) was an Italian lawyer and politician, who served as the first minister of justice in the Mussolini government between October 1922 and January 1925.
Born in Rimini and raised also in Pesaro and Rovigo, Oviglio moved to Bologna for his university education in 1892. He joined the Italian Radical Party, and served several terms in Bologna's municipal and provincial councils. On 21 November 1920, Oviglio joined the National Fascist Party. He was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1921 general election,[1] and appointed minister of justice on 31 October 1922.[2] He resigned from office after the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti,[1] and was appointed a senator on 24 January 1929.[2]
Early life and education
Oviglio was born in Rimini on 7 December 1873 to parents Francesco and Ida Malvolti.[3][2] During his secondary education, his family moved to Pesaro, and then to Rovigo.[4] At this time, he began contributing columns in the democratic newspaper L'Adigetto, expressing opposition to Corriere del Polesine [it], a local newspaper edited by Alberto Bergamini [it] whom Bergamini duelled on 7 December 1894.[1]
Oviglio attended the University of Padua. In 1892, he enrolled at the University of Bologna from which he graduated with a law degree.[3]
Political career
Bolognese councillor
Oviglio served as a councillor of Bologna's provincial council between 8 August 1910 and 14 December 1913.[1] During this time, he cofounded Giornale del Mattino, a short-lived left-wing Bolognese newspaper first issued on 11 December 1910. He contested the 1913 general election for the Vergato constituency, but was not elected.[1]
Giornale del Mattino's contributors supported Italy's participation in the First World War, criticising the antimilitarism of the Italian Socialist Party. Oviglio, whose son died during the war, began to approach nationalist politicians. In October 1920, he joined an electoral committee dedicated to liberal conservatism, and was elected to Bologna's municipal and provincial councils at the end of end of that month.[1]
On 21 November 1920, a fascist attack on the Palazzo d'Accursio, the seat of Bologna's municipal government, killed ten socialists and a liberal-conservative councillor.[1][5] On the same day, Oviglio joined the National Fascist Party.[1]
Minister of Justice
Oviglio was elected to the Chamber of Deputies in the 1921 general election for the National Bloc with 23,981 votes, ranking first in the party's Bologna list, ahead of Benito Mussolini, Leandro Arpinati and Dino Grandi.[1] Oviglio served in the 26th and 27th legislatures.[2]
On 31 October 1922, Oviglio was appointed to Mussolini's first cabinet as minister of Justice.[2][6] His reforms included instituting a single supreme court, reforming legal codes, and slimming down Italy's judicial bureaucracy. In December 1922, he freed incarcerated squadristi,[1] and on 3 May 1923, a legislative decree dismissed the chief judge and general attorney of the supreme court.[7]
In March 1923, Oviglio was made an Honorary Corporal of the Milita. Oviglio was a member of the Grand Council of Fascism from April 1923 to December 1924, and again President of Bologna's provincial council from March 1923 to October 1928.[1]
Later political life
Oviglio's term as minister of justice ended on 5 January 1925 when he resigned from the office due to the assassination of Giacomo Matteotti. Oviglio was expelled from the National Fascist Party in August 1925, after speaking against a government proposal that would have undermined judicial independence. He was readmitted the party in August 1928,[1] and was appointed a senator on 24 January 1929.[2]
Personal life and death
Oviglio was married to Ida Marzolini.[3] Their son, Galeazzo, was a sublieutenant in the 3rd Field Artillery Regiment during World War I, and died after sustaining injuries in the Battle of Montello.[8]
In September 1909, Oviglio joined a masonic lodge in Bologna, and was elevated to the third degree within a month. Italy's masonic lodges were dissolved after a legislative decree in November 1925.[1]
Oviglio died in Ronerio, near Bologna, on 19 August 1942.[2] He was buried with his son in the cemetery of Certosa.[8]
Awards
Oviglio was the recipient of the following:
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