Word: scelba
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Early Life: Born in Caltagirone, Sicily, Sept. 5, 1901, christened Mario Scelba (pronounced Shell-ba). His poor family sharecropped land owned by Don Luigi Sturzo, Italy's great political priest who founded what is now the Christian Democratic Party. Don Luigi was the boy's godfather, paid for his law studies in Rome, employed him as his private secretary, thus launched him in politics...
...speech at Novara, Mario Scelba, the tough and capable Interior Minister in the De Gasperi Cabinet, had castigated the Pella government for not being tougher with the Communists. "We must have no more of this resignation," Scelba cried. "The government's duty is to lead the struggle...
...Honest Men Know." For dauntless Alcide de Gasperi, the only choice is to fight it out on both fronts. To a huge crowd at Rome's Basilica of Massenzio last week, De Gasperi's strong-willed Interior Minister, Mario Scelba, fired the opening barrage. "If you want Communist dictatorship," said he, "vote Communist or [Nenni] Socialist. If you want adventurers to run the government and repeat all the errors of the past, then vote for the Monarchists and MSI [Neo-Fascists]. But honest men know that democracy, with all its deficiencies, is always better than totalitarianism of either...
Backed by the Communist bloc, the Demo-Christians easily pushed through (410 votes to 34) a bill drafted by Interior Minister Mario Scelba. whose name is usually anathema to the Reds. In rendering Fascism illegal, the Scelba law does a serviceable job of defining it. It bans any movement that 1) "exalts, threatens or uses violence"; 2) "advocates the suppression of [Constitutional] freedoms"; 3) engages in "racial propaganda"; 4) "denigrates democracy." Penalties: for Fascist activity, three to ten years in jail; for the Fascist salute, three months...
...Scelba law passed, the temporary alliance of Demo-Christian and Communist ended too. Last week, following a roaring attack by Red Boss Palmiro Togliatti on visiting NATO Chief Matthew Ridgway, De Gasperi jumped to his feet, turned toward the Reds and said: "Remember this! As long as I remain in this place, I shall not recognize that you have a right to prepare a revolution in Italy. If present laws are not sufficient to curb you, we shall make new ones." In other words, one down, one more...