The Bologna Massacre: A Turning Point in Italy's 'Years of Lead', Appunti di Storia Contemporanea

Scarica The Bologna Massacre: A Turning Point in Italy's 'Years of Lead' e più Appunti in PDF di Storia Contemporanea solo su Docsity! BOLOGNA MASSACRE In Italy in the sixties, after the harsh time in the post-war period, the standard of living improved. The infant mortality and illiteracy decreased. Thus in those years there was also a cultural growth and the Communist party was the stronger in Europe under the USA’s influence. In this context, at the end of the sixties, started an escalation of clashes between the extremisms of the left-wing and right-wing that resulted in violence and terrorism. In the seventies there were many massacres in Italy, like the massacre of “Piazza Fontana” in Milan and the massacre of “Piazza della Loggia” in Brescia. Some of these massacres were attributed to left-wing groups like “Brigate Rosse” or “Lotta Continua” and some others to right-wing groups like “Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari” or “Ordine Nero”. These years were called “Years of lead”, the origin of this name is a reference to the film Marianne and Juliane by Margarethe von Trotta. 1980 was the year with most high number of victims, due to the many deads of the Bologna massacre: at 10.25 a.m. of the 2 August 1980 a time-bomb exploded at the central station of Bologna where many tourists were outgoing and incoming. Due to the explosion a part of the building collapsed on one rail and on the taxi parking outside. 85 people died and over 200 people were wounded, many citizen and many passengers helped the rescuers to extract people from the rubble. It was the massacre with the highest number of victims of the Italian Republic. At the beginning the police and the government, chared by the Christian-democrat Francesco Cossiga, blamed the explosion to an old boiler in the underground of the station, but after the first reliefs and testimonies it was clear that was a terrorist act and the investigations led to identify guilty in some people members of a fascist group called “Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari”. But the court case has been going on for many years due to also a many false leads from the Italian secret service probably support by NATO’s anti-comunist operation Gladio within the so-called “strategy of tension” created to maintain social order. Authors of the massacre was definitely condemned in 1995: the neo-fascists Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti and Francesco Mambro for the material execution and Licio Gelli (head of the masonic