The Italian government has put forward the idea that the aim of these attacks was to “obtain the softening of the conditions of detention of those responsible for terrorist acts”.
Italy’s far-right government on Sunday condemned a series of acts of vandalism against its diplomatic representations in Europe, suggesting that they were committed by anarchists protesting against the detention in solitary confinement of one of their own in Italy.
The government said in a statement that it was “following with concern and attention the new cases of violence against (its) officials and diplomatic representations” in the same way as “urban violence” in Rome and Trento, a bullet sent by mail to the editor of a Tuscan newspaper, and the throwing of a molotov cocktail at a police station in the capital.
“Such acts will not intimidate institutions,” the government said. “In particular if the aim is to obtain the softening of the conditions of detention of those responsible for terrorist acts”, he added, without explicitly citing the anarchist movement.
On Friday, the windows of the Italian consulate in Barcelona were smashed and a wall damaged. In Berlin, the car of an Italian diplomat was set on fire, according to the Foreign Ministry. In December, Greek anarchists claimed responsibility for the burning of two Italian diplomatic cars in Athens, claiming to have acted in support of Alfredo Cospito.
A link with Alfredo Cospito?
At the heart of the conflict is Alfredo Cospito, whom Italian justice considers to be the leader of the Informal Anarchist Federation (FAI). He is on a hunger strike to denounce his detention in a high security prison in Sardinia, under the “41-bis” regime, generally applied to members of the mafia.
Alfredo Cospito, 55, was sentenced in 2014 to almost 11 years in prison for shooting and wounding the director of a nuclear energy company two years earlier. He is also serving a separate 20-year sentence for placing explosive devices in 2006 on police facilities, with no casualties.
He has been on a hunger strike since October to protest against his conditions of detention under the “41-bis” high security regime, which the judges decided to apply to him last April after discovering that he continued to correspond with the anarchist movement.
The deterioration of his health, according to his doctor, has revived the debate in Italy on this regime of detention in solitary confinement in a high security unit.
The anarchist movement has mobilized in the country in recent weeks, leading to the alert of the authorities in Turin and Trento last week, and scuffles broke out on Saturday night in Rome.
