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| - Extremists from the far-right and far-left terrorised Italy during the bloody "Years of Lead" in the 1970s and 1980s -- a reference to the bullets used -- including the notorious Marxist-Leninist Red Brigades. Brigades members were among seven former far-left extremists held on Wednesday in France, which had provided a safe haven for decades -- sparking outrage in Rome. Italy was not the only country that faced violence during that period, with many other parts of Europe rocked by a spate of high-profile kidnappings and assassinations. Other active far-left groups included Germany's Red Army Faction, France's Action Directe, Spain's Grapo and November 17 in Greece. Founded in 1973 by the sociologist Renato Curcio, the Red Brigades injured or killed dozens of magistrates, political figures, journalists and industrialists. Their most notorious act was the kidnapping and assassination of former prime minister Aldo Moro in 1978. A new formation known as the Red Brigades-PCC emerged in the 1990s and carried out assassinations of two government advisors in 1999 and 2002. Other left-wing extremist groups active in Italy included Lotta Continua (Continuous Struggle), one of whose founders, Adriano Sofri, served 12 years for the 1972 murder of a police chief. His co-founder, Giorgio Pietrostefani, who was sentenced over the same murder, was among those detained in France. France has long served as a haven for Red Brigades figures under a policy set in 1985 by former Socialist leader Francois Mitterrand, the so-called "Mitterrand Doctrine". He agreed not to send back extremists who renounced their past, provided they were not wanted in Italy for murder or other "crimes of blood". In 2002, then-president Jacques Chirac broke with the doctrine by authorising the extradition of university lecturer Paolo Persichetti, who was linked to the Brigades. His government also authorised in 2004 the extradition of notorious former Communist militant Cesare Battisti, who initially fled to South America but was finally jailed in Italy in 2019 for four murders dating back to the 1970s. The Mitterrand Doctrine has unsurprisingly caused serious tensions with Rome. In 2019, Italy's far-right League leader Matteo Salvini, then interior minister, accused Macron of "allowing terrorists who have massacred Italians to be free to drink champagne". President Emmanuel Macron insists he is still guided by the doctrine, but his decision to authorise the detentions Wednesday has been viewed as a diplomatic olive branch. Seven former extremists were picked up Wednesday, while three others are on the run. A French court will now examine the extradition requests. bur-ar/jv
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