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Italy and the Hague Conference of December 1969 103December 1968 to July 1970, 9 the strong opposition from the left-wing parties aswell as the troubled economic and social situation strongly affected Italianparticipation in the EC. Italian political instability caused serious worries amongother European governments, which feared the unstoppable rise of the CommunistParty, whose presence in the government could no longer be excluded. 10 From aneconomic point of view, if until 1969 Italy was the European country with thelowest inflation, the 'hot autumn' 11 and the strengthening of the trade unions'political leverage, marked the end of the Italian economic miracle and thebeginning of the industrial salaries increase of 18,3% in 1970, 9,8% in 1971, 9% in1972, with serious consequences for inflation. 12 The violent uprisings after 1969,which took place in various towns of the South, such as Avola, Battipaglia and,more important, Reggio Calabria, where the decision to move the regionaladministrative centre to Catanzaro was followed by an impressive series of socialprotests, the Piazza Fontana tragedy of December 1969, which paved the way to aserious terrorist threat, during the so-called anni di piombo - all these events forcedthe government to give priority to domestic problems, leaving only a ‘low profile’approach for foreign policy affairs.Despite the priority given to the domestic situation, Italy did not wait long inreacting to the French-inspired triplet ‘completion, deepening and enlargement’, 13outlining a clear-cut policy, under the guidance of its Foreign minister, Aldo Moro,who, since August 1969, was in charge of the Ministero degli Esteri. Althoughlukeworm Italy supported the European re-launch, considering the three goals ofthe triplet, as strictly linked together. 14From a diplomatic viewpoint, the European relaunch represented an occasion toexploit for Italy. Since the Czech crisis of 1968, most Italian diplomats, as for examplethe ambassador in Bonn, Mario Luciolli, called for a relaunch of the process of9. Rumor I Government: December 12 th 1968 - July 5 th 1969; Rumor II Government August 5 th 1969- February 17 th 1970; Rumor III Government March 27 th 1970 - July 6 th 1970. On the difficultItalian domestic situation see: P. IGNAZI, I partiti e la politica dal 1963 al 1992, in: G.SABBATUCCI and V. VIDOTTO (eds.), Storia d'Italia. L'Italia contemporanea, Laterza,Roma-Bari, 1999, pp.101-232; N. TRANFAGLIA, La modernità squilibrata. Dalla crisi delcentrismo al «compromesso storico», in: F. BARBAGALLO (ed.), Storia dell'Italia repubblicana.La trasformazione dell'Italia: sviluppo e equilibri,Giulio Einaudi Editore, Torino, 1995, pp.7-150.10. See: B. OLIVI, L'Italia nella CEE degli anni '70: problemi e prospettive, in: N. RONZITTI (ed.),La politica estera italiana. Autonomia, interdipendenza, integrazione e sicurezza, EdizioniComunità, Roma, 1977, pp.202-222; M. REVELLI, Movimento sociali e spazio politico, in: F.BARBAGALLO (ed.), Storia dell'Italia repubblicana, op.cit., p.458.11. The term 'hot autumn' was used for the first time by Indro Montanelli in a famous article titled Itimori dell'autunno in: Corriere della Sera, August 29 th 1969.12. L. MECHI, L'Europa di Ugo La Malfa. La via italiana alla modernizzazione (1942-1979), FrancoAngeli, Roma, 2003, p.158.13. On Pompidou' s triplet see: E. ROUSSEL, Georges Pompidou, Lattés, Paris, 1994 and Pompidouet l'Europe, Editions Complexe, Paris, 1995.14. European Council of Ministers Archives (ECMA), Brussels, Folder 9826-9833, Extrait du projetde procès-verbal de la réunion restreinte à l'occasion de la 76 ème session du Conseil des 22-23juillet 1969, p.26.