"The Night of the Fires", 30th April 1979
The terror and anxiety culminated into a night when 24 simultaneous terroristic attacks were held in Padova, Venice, Vicenza, and Rovigo. Between 00:15 and 00:45 the whole region was shaken by explosive bombs and fires in living areas of the city.
Who?
The attacks were officially claimed on a flayer by communist and worker organisations. However it emerged that they worked in correlation with other left-wing extreme factions.
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Most of the people responsible were later found and processed for their actions.
Where in Padova?
Altinate Street
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Explosive bombs were exploded in this street causing damages mostly to cars and dumpsters.
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Now walking down the street seems relaxing under the porches and with the sounds of coffee shops and people chatting. However, the darkness of that street while sudden explosions and fires started is unimaginable to young people now.
P. Liberi Street
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In this street a van for the transportation of prisoners was attacked with fuel and Molotov bombs.
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Anything linked to the control of the State over people seemed wrong and any action of the State was perceived as an attack on people's freedom, some say.
L. Pellizzo Street
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On this street were thrown Molotov bombs against the van of the "Mattino di Padova", a local newspaper.
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Attacking newspapers was a sort of attack on what they represented in terms of capitalistic ideals and representation of bourgeois life.
L. Lagrange Street
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Here the car of the sindacalist S. Fabris was set on fire.
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Similarly, Molotov bombs were thrown against the habitation of G. Panazzolo, president of the local area council.
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The fact that these attacks were focused on specific individuals shows how they could be extremely specific and intended to hit designed political or institutional figures.
What is striking is that most of these areas were actually simply living areas. Unlike the events of the attack to the Italian Social Movement centre, these were not always targetted attacks but appear to have made to raise awareness and protest to a certain level.
Why? What did this cause?
The flyer left as a claim for responsibility underlined the reason for this violence was a reaction to the violence and repression of communist ideas by the State culminated in the arrests of the 7th of April of members of the revolutionary forces.
What is important to realise is that this kind of violence leads to more violence by both the right and left-wing factions and to the repression of protests by the State.
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Each view acted violently on different levels because the tension in the country was at such a high level that it culminated mostly in violence. People with extremist ideas along with the State itself operated violently against each other. However, while the fights were going on, many people were involved through the loss of personal belonging, scare, or beatings.
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While nowadays we can walk down the streets completely unaware of our past, the city is full of streets and buildings and spots remembering the violence that preceded our time. The story of Padova in this sense is just a smaller representation of the story of Italy in the 70s. Similar tensions and conflicts were happening across the country in different cities.