Giovanni Amendola was an Italian

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 journalist and politician, noted as an opponent of Fascism

Fascism

Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...

.

Amendola was born in Salerno

Salerno

Salerno is a city and comune in Campania and is the capital of the province of the same name. It is located on the Gulf of Salerno on the Tyrrhenian Sea....

. After he graduated with a degree in philosophy

Philosophy

Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...

, he collaborated with some newspapers, among them being Il Leonardo of Giovanni Papini

Giovanni Papini

Giovanni Papini was an Italian journalist, essayist, literary critic, poet, and novelist.-Early life:...

 and La voce of Giuseppe Prezzolini

Giuseppe Prezzolini

Giuseppe Prezzolini was an Italian journalist, editor and writer, later an American citizen.-Biography:...

. After that, he obtained the chair of theoretical philosophy at the University of Pisa

University of Pisa

The University of Pisa , located in Pisa, Tuscany, is one of the oldest universities in Italy. It was formally founded on September 3, 1343 by an edict of Pope Clement VI, although there had been lectures on law in Pisa since the 11th century...

.

Attracted by the politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, he was elected three times to the Italian Chamber of Deputies

Italian Chamber of Deputies

The Italian Chamber of Deputies is the lower house of the Parliament of Italy. It has 630 seats, a plurality of which is controlled presently by liberal-conservative party People of Freedom. Twelve deputies represent Italian citizens outside of Italy. Deputies meet in the Palazzo Montecitorio. A...

 for Salerno. In the 1910s, Amendola supported the Italian liberal movement

Liberalism and radicalism in Italy

- Background :The formation of political groups in the 19th century in divided Italy is based on personalities, like Camillo di Cavour and Giuseppe Mazzini. Both the Historical Right and the Historical Left were composed of monarchist liberals, while radicals organised themselves as the Radical...

, but he was completely against the ideology of Giovanni Giolitti

Giovanni Giolitti

Giovanni Giolitti was an Italian statesman. He was the 19th, 25th, 29th, 32nd and 37th Prime Minister of Italy between 1892 and 1921. A left-wing liberal, Giolitti's periods in office were notable for the passage of a wide range of progressive social reforms which improved the living standards of...

. During World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, he adopted a position of democratic

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 irredentism

Irredentism

Irredentism is any position advocating annexation of territories administered by another state on the grounds of common ethnicity or prior historical possession, actual or alleged. Some of these movements are also called pan-nationalist movements. It is a feature of identity politics and cultural...

 and, at the end of the war, he was nominated minister by Prime Minister

Prime minister of Italy

The Prime Minister of Italy is the head of government of the Italian Republic...

 Francesco Saverio Nitti

Francesco Saverio Nitti

Francesco Saverio Vincenzo de Paola Nitti was an Italian economist and political figure. A Radical, he served as the 36th Prime Minister of Italy between 1919 and 1920....

.

His critical positions while confronting the right-wing extremism cost him a series of aggressions from the Fascist hired killers. In 1924 Amendola refused to adhere to the "Listone Mussolini", and attempted to become Prime Minister, as the head of a liberal coalition which ran in elections. He was defeated, but continued the democratic battle by writing columns for the Il Mondo, a new daily newspaper which he founded together with other intellectuals.

Amendola is probably most famous for his publishing of the Rossi Testimony on 27 December 1924, during the height of the Matteotti Crisis, in one of his newspapers. The document directly implicated Prime Minister Mussolini in the murder of Giacomo Matteotti (leader of the Socialist PSU party) on the 10 June 1924, as well as declaring that he (Mussolini) was behind the reign of terror which led up to the 1924 general elections (held 6 April).

Resented by Benito Mussolini

Benito Mussolini

Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini was an Italian politician who led the National Fascist Party and is credited with being one of the key figures in the creation of Fascism....

 for his prominent activism, Amendola was, together with the United Socialist Party

United Socialist Party (Italy, 1922–1930)

The United Socialist Party was a social-democratic political party in Italy, active from 1922 to 1930....

 deputy Giacomo Matteotti

Giacomo Matteotti

Giacomo Matteotti was an Italian socialist politician. On 30 May 1924, he openly spoke in the Italian Parliament alleging the Fascists committed fraud in the recently held elections, and denounced the violence they used to gain votes...

 and the popular priest don Giovanni Minzoni

Giovanni Minzoni

Giovanni Minzoni was born to a middle-class family. He studied in seminary and in 1909 was ordained priest. The following year he was appointed Deputy Pastor in the town of Argenta , which he left in 1912 to go to study in the Scuola Sociale in Bergamo, where he was awarded his degree...

, one of the régime's earliest victims: he died at Cannes

Cannes

Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

 in agony from violence inflicted by Blackshirts

Blackshirts

The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...

.

His son, Giorgio Amendola

Giorgio Amendola

Giorgio Amendola was an Italian writer and politician.Born in Rome in 1907, he was the son of Lithuanian intellectual Eva Kuhn and Giovanni Amendola, a liberal anti-fascist who died in 1926 in Cannes after having been attacked by killers hired by Benito Mussolini...

, was an important communist

Italian Communist Party

The Italian Communist Party 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 . Amadeo Bordiga and Antonio Gramsci led the split. Outlawed during the Fascist regime, the party played...

writer and politician.