Counterterrorism in Italy

In the 1970s, terrorist violence claimed more victims in Italy than it did in any other country at that time. Between 1969 and 1982, left-wing and right-wing terrorists committed 4,362 acts of violence against people and 6,153 against buildings, resulting in 351 deaths and 768 people being injured. ¹ According to a 1978 investigation by the Communist Party of Italy (Partito Communista Italiano, PCI) into the number of leftist terrorists, between 700 to 800 terrorists living underground were involved in these actions, while about 10,000 militant activists constituted a radical environment and recruitment pool around this inner group. ² Less information is available regarding the number of right-wing terrorists, although an internal police document does suggest that 797 of them were arrested in 1975 and 325 in 1976, while it lists a total of 62 fugitive right-wing extremist violent offenders in late 1976. The number of supporters of neo-fascist organizations was estimated at a few hundred. ³ Those numbers set aside, it can be stated that both terrorism and counterterrorism were high on the political agenda in this particular period.