Via Fani ambush

"May had descended upon Rome with all the fury of its fading spring. But it was a strange May. A sad one. In a city suspended in a soundproofed anguish, as if under a shower of polystyrene. In a city trapped beneath one of those glass cases where old people keep an image of the Virgin Mary. Or of a Christ with a bleeding heart and the face of Aldo Moro. Scialoja dreamt of Aldo Moro. Millions of Italians dreamt of Aldo Moro. His colleagues dreamt of Aldo Moro. They dreamt of meeting the same fate as the five martyrs of Via Fani."

"[In 2016] There were nine of them on Via Fani, as Morucci says, including four gunmen; they faced a security police that I don’t believe was incapable of defending Moro. So one wonders how they managed it? My comrades told me, "We did it ourselves, by training in the courtyard at home.""

"[Speech delivered on 16 March 1978, on the occasion of the general strike following the ambush] But on this day of mourning, a dramatic moment in the life of the nation, on this day the turmoil of emotions must not overwhelm us; we must oppose inhuman violence with reason, with the resolute determination not to bow to the blackmail of the murderers, the enemies of democracy and the freedom of our country. There is talk of civil war. We have known such things, but in this case we are not facing a struggle between one, albeit small, section of the people against another. That is not the case. We are facing a handful of professional terrorists who are waging a relentless campaign against our institutions and our freedoms; we are facing a small group of murderers who are attacking the institutions of Italian democracy; it is true, however, it is true and we must take advantage of this circumstance to reflect on this reality: that surrounding this tiny, ferocious gang of criminals there is a certain stratum of acquiescent, passive people, people who, if nothing else, morally disengage or even show solidarity with the criminals, with the terrorists, or who simply stand by and watch. This is not the time to stand by and watch, friends of Rome. We cannot, at this moment, in this trial, stand by passively in the face of the torment being inflicted upon our country’s institutions, democracy, freedom, and the fundamental values of civil coexistence that we have won through our struggle."

"[In 1990, "was the Via Fani operation launched that day partly to influence the parliamentary vote, or not?"] No, the coincidence of the government's formation was entirely accidental. It was no coincidence that that operation was part of a proposal that was a complete alternative to those who believed that development in Italy was linked to a political change, called "National Solidarity". That, yes, that was no coincidence because the project was being launched at that very moment, in those weeks, in those months. Certainly a project that would have brought great trouble to our country."

"[In 2000] My view remains the same as that which I expressed in my Giornale the day after the incident. "If the State, bowing to blackmail, deals with the violence that has already left the five bodies of the security police on the pavement, thereby recognising the crime as its legitimate interlocutor, it no longer has any reason, as a State, to exist". This was the position we took from day one and which, fortunately, found two resolute supporters in Parliament (Berlinguer’s PCI and La Malfa's PRI) and one reluctant supporter amidst tears and sobs (the DC of the Moro-supporting Zaccagnini). This was the "plot" that led to the State’s hesitant ‘no’, to Moro’s subsequent death, but shortly afterwards also to the surrender of the Red Brigades. As for the gossip and suspicions that have been spun around it, and which still resurface from time to time, not a shred of evidence has ever been produced, and they are merely the fruit of the whingeing infantilism of this spineless people, incapable even of conceiving that a State might react, as a State, to those who flout its laws."

"[In 2023, "on 16 March 1978, you passed through Via Fani shortly before the ambush on Aldo Moro and his security policec?"] I had to catch the bus to university; my moped was broken. I stopped at the newsagent’s to pick up the Messaggero. I was reading the front-page news about Juventus managing to beat Ajax thanks to Zoff, when the gunfire started. I ran to the opposite side of the street and, with a neighbour, we hid in a side alley. It didn’t last long. When I went back, there were victims on the ground, bullet casings, blood. It looked like a film. But I realised the gravity of the situation at home: there was nothing else on the telly."