The evening of December 12, 1969 seemed to be unfolding normally: the people of Milan went about their business in the city on the last working day of the week. In Piazza Fontana, the building of the Agricultural Bank was full of people. In the circular trading room, on the third floor of the building, long queues of customers had formed who, due to the festive season, had rushed to make the necessary transactions. At 16:37 in the afternoon, however, everything would change.
“I was sitting at my desk behind the counter. I heard an explosion, a noise that left me speechless. Through the smoke I saw a body fly from the audience area up and behind the bench, and land about a meter away from me. I was shocked, I couldn’t move,” said 27-year-old Michele Carloto, a cashier at the Agricultural Bank. The police, who intervened immediately, found an aluminum box containing about 8 kg of explosives. The toll was sad: 17 dead and 88 injured.
However, the explosion, or the Piazza Fontana Massacre, as it came to be known, was to be only the beginning. At the same time in Rome, a bomb exploded in the underpass connecting the Labor Bank entrance on Via Veneto with Via San Basilio, injuring 14 workers. At 17:22, another bomb exploded at the Altar of the Fatherland (Vittorio Emanuele II monument), while at 17:30 another explosion followed at the entrance of the Risorgimento museum in Piazza Venezia, injuring four more people. Also, a few hours later, another explosive device was discovered in another bank in Milan, next to La Scala, but it was neutralized by police pyrotechnicians with a controlled explosion.
Both the country’s President Giuseppe Saragat and Prime Minister Mariano Rumor were quick to declare that they would impose severe penalties on those responsible. The situation, however, was much more complex and was not only about finding and convicting the guilty. These terrorist attacks came at a particularly tense time for Italy. Dubbed the “Lead Years” (Anni di piombo), that period, which lasted until the end of the 80s, was characterized by great unrest, a strong presence of the labor and student movements, political violence and terrorism. The autumn preceding the Piazza Fontana massacre was known as the “Hot Autumn” (Autunno Caldo) and was marked by widespread strike action, mainly by workers in the metal industry. It is estimated that by 1970, strikes accounted for over 440 man-hours.
Thus, the situation was highly charged and the political leadership seemed unable to control it. Of course, it didn’t take long for her to focus her research on anarchist and leftist groups. One of those cores included the anarchist trade unionist and railway worker Giuseppe Pinelli, who had been a suspect in the eyes of the Italian police for other such attacks (for which he was ultimately not responsible). On 12 December, following the events in Piazza Fontana, police forces made over 80 targeted arrests – including Pinelli. On the third day of his arrest, when by law he should either be released or face specific charges, Pinelli was still at the police station being questioned. The case would take a new, sharp turn when, shortly after midnight on December 15th, passers-by outside the Milan police station would see Pinelli fall from a fourth-floor window and be fatally injured.
A new scandal had been created, as inside the room where Pinelli was, there were also five police officers present, including Inspector Luigi Calabrese. The Milanese police quickly held a press conference announcing that Pinelli’s death was a suicide, as he realized that the police would discover that the alibi he had given them was false. But in reality, his alibi would be confirmed a little later.
Much-lauded trials of anarchists and also of the police officers involved in the Pinelli case followed. Calabrese was acquitted for lack of evidence, but was eventually murdered in May 1972 in front of his home by members of the far-left organization Lotta Continua. Meanwhile, another anarchist, Pietro Valpreda, who was accused of the attacks, was eventually acquitted.
The case was to be solved decades later, when a Milanese prosecutor at the time named Guido Salvini reopened the case, having found new evidence. In the end, those responsible for the 5 attacks were Delfo Giorgi, Carlo Maria Maggi and Giancarlo Ronni, members of the fascist organization “New Order” (Nuova Ordine), who were sentenced to life imprisonment. However, in 2004 the court decision was overturned on appeal.
However, the Piazza Fontana massacre ushered in a new, turbulent period in Italy in which the so-called “strategia della tensione” (strategia della tensione) was applied: the country’s secret services directed some terrorist actions with the help of far-right-fascist organizations aimed at the culpability of the left. After all, as was shown by the relevant investigations, the members of the “New Order” had connections with the Italian secret services. The events of Piazza Fontana and the role of the state machine in them divide Italians even today.
Column editor: Myrto Katsigera, Vassilis Minakakis, Antigoni-Despina Poimenidou, Athanasios Syroplakis
