Years of Lead (Italy)

The Years of Lead (Italian: Anni di piombo) were a period of social and political turmoil in Italy that lasted from the late 1960s to the late 1980s, marked by a wave of both far-left and far-right political terrorism.

The Years of Lead are sometimes considered to have begun with the 1968 movement in Italy and the Hot Autumn strikes starting in 1969; the death of the policeman Antonio Donnarumma in November 1969; the Piazza Fontana bombing in December of that year, which killed 17 and was perpetrated by right-wing terrorists in Milan; and the death shortly after of anarchist worker Giuseppe Pinelli while in police custody under suspicion of being responsible for the attack, which he was ultimately deemed as not having committed.

The conflict involved violent struggles between militant neo-fascist and far-left organizations, as well as the Italian state. Neo-fascist groups pursued a campaign of indiscriminate bombings and massacres known as the "strategy of tension", which sought to sow panic, blame the left, and provoke an authoritarian coup. Far-left groups, most prominently the Red Brigades, carried out targeted assassinations, kidnappings, and bombings intended to destabilize the state and inspire a proletarian revolution. This political violence emerged from a backdrop of widespread social unrest following the post-war economic boom, and disillusionment with the mainstream political parties, primarily the ruling Christian Democracy and the Italian Communist Party.

Major attacks of the period include the 1969 Piazza Fontana bombing, the 1974 Piazza della Loggia bombing, and the 1978 kidnapping and murder of former prime minister Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. The deadliest single attack of the era was the 1980 Bologna massacre, which killed 85 people. Between 1968 and 1988, the conflict resulted in 428 deaths and approximately 2,000 injuries attributed to political violence.

The violence began to decline in the early 1980s following the arrest of key Red Brigades leaders and the introduction of anti-terrorism laws that encouraged militants to become state witnesses (pentiti). Parliamentary inquiries later revealed the covert involvement of rogue elements within Italian intelligence services and the secret Propaganda Due (P2) Masonic lodge in the far-right's strategy of tension. Some of these operations were also linked to NATO's "stay-behind" network in Italy. Although most armed groups were dismantled by the end of the 1980s, the Years of Lead have left a profound impact on Italian politics and society.