Giacomo Matteotti was born in Fratta Polesine (RO) on 22th May 1885.

Son of Girolamo and Elisabetta Garzarolo, iron and copper merchants in the province of Rovigo who made their fortune and became wealthy landowners.

From a young age, Giacomo and his brothers – Matteo and Silvio, who died prematurely – joined the Italian Socialist Party and actively contributed to local politics. While still a boy, Giacomo signed his first articles for the magazine La lotta, which designated him as a political reference point in the area. It was during this period that his vision of social justice and civil commitment began to take shape, always accompanied by an anti-militarist view, opposed to Italy’s intervention in wartime conflicts.

After high school, he enrolled in the Faculty of Law in Bologna, graduating with top marks in 1907.

In the following years, he devoted himself to political activity: he was elected mayor in his home town and also in neighbouring towns, and then became a provincial councillor.

In 1919, he was elected to Parliament, where he distinguished himself for his uncompromising and combative temperament. Those years also saw the beginning of his fight against the fascist movement, whose abuses and irregularities he denounced.

After his expulsion from the PSI in 1922, he, together with Filippo Turati and others, founded the United Socialist Party, which became the second largest opposition party in the 1924 elections.

On 30th May 1924, Matteotti addressed the Chamber of Deputies, publicly denouncing the invalidity of the elections held the previous month, contesting the violence, illegalities and abuses committed by the fascists, who had managed to win the elections. His request to invalidate the vote was not granted and Matteotti was recognised by the press as the main opponent of fascism. That famous speech is historically remembered as a hymn to democracy, which marked his death sentence.

On the afternoon of 10th June 1924, he was kidnapped in Rome by a group of fascists lurking a few hundred metres from his home, as he walked towards Montecitorio. He died, by stabbing, a few hours later.

Due to the presence of witnesses and the poor handling of what will go down in history as the ‘Matteotti case’, within days the press made the backgrounds known along with the names of the main perpetrators.

His body was found on 16 August of that year in the Quartarella maquis, in Riano, a municipality a few kilometres from Rome.

You can consult the death certificate on the Ancestors Portal: Archivio di Stato di Roma, Stato civile italiano (registri dei comuni), Riano, 1924

The deed was written (in part II, series C) in the register of the municipality of Riano, where the corpse was found. It should be noted that there is an annex with a rectification ruling, dated 12 October 1925, correcting the date of birth of the Hon. Matteotti, which was partially incorrectly reported in the death certificate.

The original is kept at the State Archives of Rome.

For more on the figure of Giacomo Matteotti, see the entry in the Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani edited by Mauro Canali.