Ezio Maria Gray
Ezio Maria Gray (born 9 October 1885 in Novara, Piedmont – died 8 February 1969 in Rome) was an Italian politician and journalist.
Early years
Gray, a staunch critic of socialism, was a founder member of the Italian Nationalist Association in 1910.[1] He dropped out of politics to serve in the Italian Army during the First World War and afterwards in Dalmatia.[1]
Fascism
On his return to Italy he became a supporter of fascism and set up the Novara fascio in 1920.[1] Gray was elected to parliament for the fascists in 1921 and was appointed to the National Directorate in 1924.[1] The following year he was appointed to the Grand Council of Fascism and in 1927 he took over the editorship of the fascist journal Il Pensiero di Benito Mussolini.[2] Away from his party duties he was a leading figure in the Società Dante Alighieri, President of the Ente Autonomo della Stampa and a businessman with a reputation for shady dealings.[2]
Gray served in the army during the Second World War before returning to civilian life as a radio broadcaster. His broadcasts were especially noted for their anti-Semitic content.[3] His position grew towards the end of the Italian fascists period and on 23 July 1943 he was appointed vice-president of the Chamber of Fasces and Corporations.[2] Gray continued to be an important figure in the Italian Social Republic and was appointed head of the Ente Italiano per le Audizioni Radiofoniche during the republic's brief existence.[4] Following the collapse of this regime he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for his leading role in the fascist government.[2]
Post-war
Soon after being sent to prison however Gray was amnestied and in 1947 he launched his own journal, La Rivolta Ideale, which pressed a neo-fascist line.[2] He then edited Il Nazionale, the paper of the Italian Social Movement and became a leading figure on the hard-line tendency, supporting Giorgio Almirante in his struggles with the more moderate Arturo Michelini.[2] In the MSI he became noted for his support for seeking an accommodation with political Catholicism, seeing this as a way to rehabilitate fascism, and to this end held a number of surreptitious meeting with Azione Cattolica leader Dr. Luigi Gedda.[5] Gray returned to parliament, serving the MSI as a deputy from 1953 to 1958 and in the Senate from 1963 to 1968.[2]
Main works
- Lo smeraldo di Nerone, Forlì 1911;
- La bella guerra, Firenze 1912;
- Il Belgio sotto la spada tedesca, ibid. 1915;
- La guerra senza sangue, ibid. 1915;
- Disciplina civile, ibid. 1916;
- Venezia in armi, Milano 1917;
- Con le fanterie sarde. Giornate sull'Altipiano e sul Piave, Firenze 1918;
- Come Lenin conquistò la Russia, ibid. 1920;
- Il fronte antibolscevico, ibid. 1920;
- Il processo di Cadorna, ibid. 1920;
- Il pensiero di Mussolini, Milano 1927;
- Oriani maestro di vita e di potenza, Bologna 1930;
- Crescendo di certezze, Roma 1930;
- Credenti nella patria, Milano 1934;
- Antonio Cecchi, ibid. 1935;
- Silvio Pellico, ibid. 1936;
- Francesco Caracciolo e la Rivoluzione napoletana, ibid. 1936;
- L'Italia ha sempre ragione. Cronache del regime (aprile 1932 - giugno 1938), ibid. 1938;
- Ramazza. Cose dette e non dette (15 giugno 1939 - 22 sett. 1941), ibid. 1942.
References
- Philip Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890, 1990, p. 161
- Rees, Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right, p. 162
- Emilio Gentile, The Struggle for Modernity: Nationalism, Futurism, and Fascism, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2003, p. 174
- Luisa Quartermaine, Mussolini's Last Republic: Propaganda and Politics in the Italian Social Republic (R.S.I.) 1943-45, Intellect Books, 2000, p. 63
- Richard A. Webster, The Cross and the Fasces: Christian Democracy and Fascism in Italy, Stanford University Press, 1960, p. 213
External links
- Sircana, Giuseppe (2002). "GRAY, Ezio Maria". Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Volume 58: Gonzales–Graziani (in Italian). Rome: Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana.
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