![Sogno arresto](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/76/Sogno_arresto.jpg)
The White coup ( it, Golpe bianco) was a planned coup in Italy intended for the summer of 1974, promoted by former anti-fascist and anti-communist partisans. It intended to force the then President of the Republic
Giovanni Leone
Giovanni Leone (; 3 November 1908 – 9 November 2001) was an Italian politician, jurist, and university professor. A founding member of the Christian Democracy (DC), Leone served as the President of Italy from December 1971 until June 1978. H ...
to appoint a government that would proscribe the
Italian Communist Party
The Italian Communist Party ( it, Partito Comunista Italiano, PCI) was a communist political party in Italy.
The PCI was founded as ''Communist Party of Italy'' on 21 January 1921 in Livorno by seceding from the Italian Socialist Party (PSI). ...
, other communist groups and right-wing groups like the
Movimento Sociale Italiano
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national c ...
. It would then lead institutional reforms and establish a semi-presidential constitution like that of the
Fifth Republic in France. The term "white coup" (alternatively "silent coup" ("golpe silenzioso") or "soft coup" ("golpe morbido") then entered the common language to indicate more generally a coup d'état carried out without recourse to force, by a government that exercises power unconstitutionally.
Political ideas and plans
The main architect of the coup plan was
Edgardo Sogno
Count Edgardo Pietro Andrea Sogno Rata del Vallino di Ponzone ( Camandona, 29 December 1915 – Turin, 5 August 2000) was an Italian diplomat, partisan and political figure. He was born in an aristocratic family from Piedmont.
Under Fasci ...
, who stated:
Sogno was convinced that Italy needed a presidential republic and therefore a constitutional reform similar to that which
General Charles de Gaulle
Charles André Joseph Marie de Gaulle (; ; (commonly abbreviated as CDG) 22 November 18909 November 1970) was a French army officer and statesman who led Free France against Nazi Germany in World War II and chaired the Provisional Government ...
had achieved in France with the establishment of the Fifth Republic. He made friends with
Randolfo Pacciardi
Randolfo Pacciardi (1 January 1899 – 14 April 1991) was an Italian politician.
He was a long-time member of the secular, centre-left Italian Republican Party.
An ardent anti-fascist, he lived in exile for many years and was an officer of the ...
, a former partisan and republican politician, supporter of the presidential republic, and became affiliated with the
Freemasonry
Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...
of the
Grand Orient of Italy
The Grand Orient of Italy (GOI) ( it, Grande Oriente d'Italia) is an Italian masonic grand lodge founded in 1805; the viceroy Eugene of Beauharnais was instrumental in its establishment. It was based at the Palazzo Giustiniani, Rome, Italy fr ...
, associating himself with the
P2 Masonic lodge.
After serving as ambassador in several states, Sogno returned to Italy in 1971 and set up the Committees of Democratic Resistance, a series of political centers born with an anti-communist function, to which numerous "white" and "blue" former partisans joined, such as
Enrico Martini
Enrico Martini (''nom de guerre'' "Mauri") Mondovì, 29 January 1911 – Turkey, 19 September 1976) was an Italian soldier and partisan, an Alpini ''Major'', founder of the ''1 Group Alpine Divisions'' in the Italian Resistance, and a recipien ...
(commander "Mauri"). Another associate was
Enzo Tortora
Enzo Tortora (30 November 1928 – 18 May 1988) was an Italian TV host on national RAI television, who was unjustly convicted of being a member of the Camorra and drug trafficking in 1985, and sentenced to 10 years in jail. He was acquitted of ...
also wrote for the newspaper ''Resistenza Democratica''.
In this period Sogno was vice president of the
Italian Federation of Freedom Volunteers (FIVL).
[ He made contact with several generals and prepared a plan for the takeover of government, with Pacciardi acting as "the Italian de Gaulle".][
]
The plot frustrated
Eventually Minister of the Interior Paolo Emilio Taviani
Paolo Emilio Taviani (6 November 1912 – 18 June 2001) was an Italian political leader, economist, and historian of the career of Christopher Columbus. He was a partisan leader in Liguria, a Gold Medal of the Resistance, then a member of the Co ...
received information about the planned coup and instructed the Chief of Police to investigate; Taviani later said he assumed that this is how information about it came into the possession of the Public Prosecutor's Office of Turin. Defense Minister Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...
is credited with hindering the plot by having key military leaders involved transferred from their posts.
In August 1974 an investigating magistrate in Turin
Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...
, Luciano Violante
Luciano Violante (born 25 September 1941) is an Italian judge and politician, Member of Parliament from 1979 to 2008. He is particularly interested in questions of justice, the struggle against the Mafia and institutional reform.
Biography
Viola ...
, accused sogno of having planned the coup together with Randolfo Pacciardi and Luigi Cavallo «in order to change the Constitution of the State and the form of government with means not permitted by the constitutional order».[ He claimed that the intended date of the coup had been 15 August 1974. On 27 August Sogno's house was searched. Sogno escaped arrest by fleeing by an ancient secret passage built by his grandfather, Count Sogno Rata del Vallino and he went into hiding.
On 27 January 1975, Violante sought access to correspondence concerning Sogno that was held in the archives of the SID. On 12 February, the SID sent a few redacted pages, stating that "...the missing parts could not be transmitted, because they referred to matters connected to a specific counter-espionage activity...". On 4/6/1975, the Prime Minister ]Aldo Moro
Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy (DC). He served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July ...
stated that "...the undelivered documents dealt with matters connected to specific counterespionage activities in relation to formal subject data (names of foreign personalities and informants, acronyms of counterintelligence operations.
It was not until 3 May 1976 that Violante was able to have Sogno arrested and he was sent to the Regina Coeli prison
Regina Coeli (; it, Carcere di Regina Coeli ) is the best known prison in the city of Rome. Previously a Catholic convent (hence the name), it was built in 1654 in the rione of Trastevere. It started to serve as a prison in 1881.
The constructi ...
together with Luigi Cavallo
is a fictional character featured in video games and related media released by Nintendo. Created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto, Luigi is portrayed as the younger fraternal twin brother and sidekick of Mario, Nintendo's masc ...
. Sogno was released on 19 June the same year.
The case was transferred from Turin to an investigating magistrate in Rome. On May 24, 1976, the Roman court confirmed the accusations of Violante and issued two more arrest warrants for Sogno and Cavallo. However, on June 19, the investigating judge Filippo Fiore, following the prosecutor's opinion, placed the two defendants in provisional release. The prosecutor then requested the acquittal of Sogno and Cavallo for lack of evidence and of the other defendants for not having committed any crime. On 12 September 1978 the investigating judge Francesco Amato issued a sentence of acquittal for all the defendants "...because the facts do not support" the accusation.
1997 revelations
In 1997, Sogno revealed the list of names of those whom the coup intended to install as a government, and of the generals who supported the plan, including Giuseppe Santovito
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
then (head of the "Folgore" mechanized division, later of SISMI
Servizio per le Informazioni e la Sicurezza Militare (abbreviated SISMI, ''Military Intelligence and Security Service'') was the military intelligence agency of Italy from 1977–2007.
With the reform of the Italian Intelligence Services app ...
); right-wing journalist :it:Giano Accame, socialists hostile to the Communist Party, Christian Democrat elements, and even disillusioned communists who had left the party. According to his memoirs it was a "liberal coup" against the "moderate coalition, the intellectuals, the major economic-financial forces and the Church of the Left" which would have foreseen the formation of an emergency government, in which Pacciardi would assumed the office of Prime Minister and Sogno of Foreign Minister or Defense Minister. Once the form of government had changed and the Communists and Fascists had been ousted, the voters would be called on to form a new Parliament and a new Government. The list of the «strong government» (read by Sogno in 1997 in a radio broadcast), to be submitted to President Leone with the support of the generals, was as follows:
*Prime Minister: Randolfo Pacciardi
Randolfo Pacciardi (1 January 1899 – 14 April 1991) was an Italian politician.
He was a long-time member of the secular, centre-left Italian Republican Party.
An ardent anti-fascist, he lived in exile for many years and was an officer of the ...
( UDNR, ex PRI)
*Undersecretaries to the Prime Minister: Antonio de Martini
Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language-speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular mal ...
(UDNR) and Celso De Stefanis ( DC)
*Foreign Minister: Manlio Brosio
Manlio Brosio (10 July 1897 – 14 March 1980) was an Italian lawyer, diplomat, politician and the fourth Secretary General of NATO between 1964 and 1971.
Early life
Brosio was born in Turin by Edoardo & Fortunata Curadelli, studied law in the ...
( PLI)
*Minister of the Interior: Eugenio Reale (ex PCI
PCI may refer to:
Business and economics
* Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards
** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors
* Pro ...
, then PSDI area, who however refused to join)
*Defense Minister: Edgardo Sogno
Count Edgardo Pietro Andrea Sogno Rata del Vallino di Ponzone ( Camandona, 29 December 1915 – Turin, 5 August 2000) was an Italian diplomat, partisan and political figure. He was born in an aristocratic family from Piedmont.
Under Fasci ...
(ex PLI, Committees of Democratic Resistance)
*Minister of Finance: Ivan Matteo Lombardo
Ivan Matteo Lombardo (22 May 1902 – 6 February 1980) was an Italian politician.
Early career
Lombardo was born in Milan in 1902. A budding young journalist, from 1920 to 1922 he was editor of the labour section of ''Avanti!'', the daily newsp ...
(ex PSI
Psi, PSI or Ψ may refer to:
Alphabetic letters
* Psi (Greek) (Ψ, ψ), the 23rd letter of the Greek alphabet
* Psi (Cyrillic) (Ѱ, ѱ), letter of the early Cyrillic alphabet, adopted from Greek
Arts and entertainment
* "Psi" as an abbreviation ...
, later PSDI )
*Minister of Treasury and Budget: Sergio Ricossa
Sergio Ricossa (6 June 1927 – 2 March 2016) was an Italian economist.
Born in Turin, in 1949 Ricossa graduated in Economics at the Turin University. In 1961 he was nominated associate professor of economic policy and financial discipline in the ...
(independent, economist)
*Minister of Justice: Giovanni Colli (independent, Attorney General of the Cassation)
*Minister of Education: Giano Accame (independent, former MSI, journalist and writer)
*Minister of Information: Mauro Mita (ex PRI, UDNR)
*Minister of Industry: Giuseppe Zamberletti
Giuseppe Zamberletti (17 December 1933 – 26 January 2019) was an Italian politician and one of the founders of Italy's Protezione Civile (Civil Protection), of which he was the first minister in Italy from 1981.
Biography
Zamberletti was born i ...
(diplomat, DC)
*Labor Minister: Bartolo Ciccardini (DC)
*Minister of Health: Aldo Cucchi (ex PCI, then PSDI )
*Merchant Marine Minister: Luigi Durand de la Penne
Luigi Durand de la Penne (11 February 1914 – 17 January 1992) was an Italian Navy admiral who served as naval diver in the Decima MAS during World War II. De la Penne was born in Genoa, where he also died.
De la Penne graduated from the Itali ...
(ex DC and PLI, admiral and only military figure on the list)
Later revelations
Sogno always denied that this plot envisaged the physical elimination of communists, as Norberto Bobbio
Norberto Bobbio (; 18 October 1909 – 9 January 2004) was an Italian philosopher of law and political sciences and a historian of political thought. He also wrote regularly for the Turin-based daily ''La Stampa''.
Bobbio was a social libera ...
argued, only a secret but harsh psychological war against them. The adjective "white" itself mainly indicated the fact that - in Sogno's intentions - it would be a peaceful and bloodless breakthrough, and the army would get involved only for defensive purposes.[ Sogno reiterated in his will that Violante completely missed the target by linking the white coup to neo-fascist massacres: the project existed, but it was a question of «pushing Leone towards the Gaullist turn, not planting bombs», according to him very little compared to the atmosphere of the years of lead and the ]strategy of tension
A strategy of tension ( it, strategia della tensione) is a policy wherein violent struggle is encouraged rather than suppressed. The purpose is to create a general feeling of insecurity in the population and make people seek security in a strong go ...
, with which he said the white coup had nothing to do.
In his 1998 memoirs, Sogno revealed how he had visited the CIA station chief in Rome in July 1974 to inform him of his plans for an anti-communist coup. He wrote: "I told him that I was informing him as an ally in the struggle for the freedom of the west and asked him what the attitude of the American government would be," and then: "He answered what I already knew: the United States would have supported any initiative tending to keep the communists out of government."
In 2000, shortly after Sogno's death, his autobiography was published in which Sogno acknowledged that Violante had correctly understood what the planned coup intended to do. He explicitly admitted that he had worked with Pacciardi, for an "institutional break" "on the Gaullist model". He described this as justified by the duty to "perform a dutiful act, in the defense of democratic freedom and for the reconstruction of the State on its historical foundations of the Risorgimento" (p. 142). Sogno admitted that "it was a political and military operation, largely representative on a political level, and of maximum efficiency on a military level". The coup plotters counted on the sympathy of the United States, which, according to Sogno, would have remained on the sidelines, limiting itself to merely declaring support for "any initiative aimed at keeping the Communists at bay or at a distance from the government" (p. 148).
References
{{reflist
1974 in Italy
Coup d'état attempts in Europe
1970s coups d'état and coup attempts
Years of Lead (Italy)
Propaganda Due
Anti-communism in Italy