Italians' reactions to four stringent austerity packages have so far been fairly muted. Rome saw a violent protest last October, but it seemed to be directed at a range of targets, from the then government of Silvio Berlusconi to capitalism in general. In recent weeks, however, there have been at least eight acts of terrorist violence or intimidation aimed at the authorities' efforts to tighten Italy's public finances. The target is the taxcollection service, Equitalia. On December 9th the agency's director-general, Marco Cuccagna, suffered hand and face injuries when a parcel bomb exploded at his office in Rome. The following week another parcel bomb was intercepted at Equitalia's headquarters. Police have blamed a shadowy organisation called the Informal Anarchist Federation (fai), which has claimed responsibility for several lowintensity terrorist campaigns since 2003. The fai has been variously described as a terrorist franchising operation and an umbrella structure for more than a dozen equally spectral anarchist organisations. But none of its members has ever been caught, and some security officials doubt whether it exists as anything more than a set of initials for use by the angry and violently inclined.
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