There was widespread social conflict and unprecedented acts of terrorism carried out by both right - and left-wing paramilitary groups . An attempt to endorse the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement ( MSI ) by the Tambroni Cabinet led to rioting and was short-lived . Widespread labor unrest and the collaboration of countercultural student activist groups with working class factory workers and pro-labor radical leftist organizations such as Potere Operaio and Lotta Continua culminated in the so-called " Hot Autumn " of 1969 , a massive series of strikes in factories and industrial centers in Northern Italy . Student strikes and labor strikes , often led by workers , leftists , left-sympathizing laborers , or Marxist activists , became increasingly common , often deteriorating into clashes between the police and demonstrators composed largely of workers , students , activists , and often left-wing militants . The Christian Democrats ( DC ) were instrumental in the Italian Socialist Party ( PSI ) gaining power in the 1960s and they created a coalition . The assassination of the Christian Democrat leader Aldo Moro in 1978 ended the strategy of '' historic compromise '' between the DC and the Italian Communist Party ( PCI ) . The assassination was carried out by the Red Brigades , then led by Mario Moretti . Between 1968 and 1988 , 428 murders were attributed to political violence in the form of bombings , assassinations , and street warfare between rival militant factions
The assassination
Kidnapping of Aldo Moro
Years of Lead (Italy)