Luigi Gerolamo Pelloux ( La Roche-sur-Foron, 1 March 1839 –

Bordighera Bordighera (; lij, A Bordighea, locally ) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Imperia, Liguria (Italy). Geography Bordighera is located from the land border between Italy and France, and it is possible to see the French coast with a nak ...

, 26 October 1924) was an Italian general and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking ...

, born of parents who retained their Italian nationality when Savoy was annexed to France. He was the

Prime Minister of Italy The Prime Minister of Italy, officially the President of the Council of Ministers ( it, link=no, Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri), is the head of government of the Italian Republic. The office of president of the Council of Ministers is ...

from 29 June 1898 to 24 June 1900, his rule was considered by historians as

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

and

militarist Militarism is the belief or the desire of a government or a people that a state should maintain a strong military capability and to use it aggressively to expand national interests and/or values. It may also imply the glorification of the mil ...

Early career

Pelloux was born in La Roche-sur-Foron, Savoy, then part of the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

. Entering the army as lieutenant of artillery in 1857 he gained the medal for military valour at the Battle of Custoza in 1866, and on September 20, 1870, commanded the brigade of artillery which battered the breach in the wall of

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

at Porta Pia, which enabled Bersaglieri soldiers to enter Rome and complete the

unification of Italy The unification of Italy ( it, Unità d'Italia ), also known as the ''Risorgimento'' (, ; ), was the 19th-century political and social movement that resulted in the consolidation of different states of the Italian Peninsula into a single ...

. He entered the war office in 1870, and in 1880 became General Secretary, in which capacity he introduced many useful reforms in the army. He was elected to the Chamber in 1881 as deputy for Livorno, which he represented until 1895, and joined the party of the Left. After a succession of high military commands he received the appointment of Chief of the General Staff in 1896. He was Minister of War in the Rudinì and

Giolitti Giolitti is a well-known café and pastry shop, and reportedly the oldest ice cream parlor in Rome, Italy. It was founded in 1890 by Giuseppe and Bernardina Giolitti and opened their first creamery in Salita del Grillo. Soon after, they became t ...

cabinets of 1891–1893. In July 1896 he resumed the portfolio of War in the Rudinì cabinet, and was appointed Senator. In May 1897 he secured the adoption of the Army Reform Bill, fixing Italian military expenditure at a maximum of 9,560,000 a year, but in December of that year he was defeated in the Chamber on the question of the promotion of officers.

Prime Minister of Italy

Resigning office, he was sent as Royal Commissioner to Bari in May 1898, where, without recourse to

martial law Martial law is the imposition of direct military control of normal civil functions or suspension of civil law by a government, especially in response to an emergency where civil forces are overwhelmed, or in an occupied territory. Use Marti ...

, he succeeded in restoring public order suppressing street demonstrations demanding "bread and work". Upon the fall of Rudinì in June 1898, after the Bava-Beccaris massacre, General Pelloux was entrusted by King Umberto with the formation of a new government, and took for himself the post Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior. He resigned office in May 1899 over his Chinese policy, but was again entrusted with the formation of a government. His new cabinet was essentially military and conservative, the most decisively conservative since 1876. He took stern measures against the revolutionary elements in Italy. The Public Safety Bill for the reform of the police laws, taken over by him from the Rudinì cabinet, and eventually promulgated by royal decree, was fiercely obstructed by the Socialist Party of Italy (PSI) and Extreme Left. The law made strikes by state employees illegal; gave the executive wide powers to ban public meetings and dissolve subversive organisations; revived the penalties of banishment and preventive arrest for political offences; and tightened control of the press by making authors responsible for their articles and declaring incitement to violence a crime.Seton-Watson,
Italy from liberalism to fascism, 1870-1925
', p. 193 The Radicals and Socialist start an obstructionist campaign against the new coercive law using the filibuster: points of order, endless speeches and other procedural delaying tactics.Clark, ''Modern Italy''
p. 141
/ref> When Pelloux tried to force the law through Parliament by royal decree in June 1899, more moderate politicians like

Giuseppe Zanardelli Giuseppe Zanardelli (29 October 1826 26 December 1903) was an Italian jurist and political figure. He served as the Prime Minister of Italy from 15 February 1901 to 3 November 1903. An eloquent orator, he was also a Grand Master freemason. Zan ...

and Giovanni Giolitti that considered the measure unconstitutional, joined the opposition. The growing opposition succeeded in forcing General Pelloux to dissolve the Chamber in May 1900, and to resign office after the general election in June.

Later career

In the autumn of 1901 he was appointed to the command of the

Turin Turin ( , 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 from 1861 to 1865. The ...

army corps. He retired in 1905. Pelloux died at

in 1924.

References

* * Clark, Martin (2008).
Modern Italy: 1871 to the present
', Harlow: Pearson Education, * Seton-Watson, Christopher (1967).
Italy from liberalism to fascism, 1870-1925
', New York: Taylor & Francis, {{DEFAULTSORT:Pelloux, Luigi 1839 births 1924 deaths People from Haute-Savoie People from the Kingdom of Sardinia Prime Ministers of Italy Italian Ministers of the Interior Deputies of Legislature XIV of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XV of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVI of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVII of the Kingdom of Italy Deputies of Legislature XVIII of the Kingdom of Italy