Francesco Cossiga

Francesco Cossiga, OMRI (Italian pronunciation: [franˈtʃesko kosˈsiːɡa]; July 26, 1928 – August 17, 2010) was an Italian politician of the Christian Democracy party. He was the 42nd Prime Minister of Italy from 1979 to 1980 and the eighth President of Italy from 1985 to 1992. He was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari.

Cossiga was born in Sassari in the north of Sardinia. He started his political career during World War II. His name is now usually pronounced [kosˈsiːɡa], but it was originally pronounced [ˈkɔssiɡa], with the stress on the first syllable, meaning "Corsica" in Sassarese. He was the cousin of Enrico Berlinguer.

Minister for the Christian Democrats

He was a minister several times for the Democrazia Cristiana party (DC), notably during his stay at Viminale (Ministry for internal affairs) where he re-structured the Italian police, civil protection and secret services.

He was in office at the time of the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by Red Brigades, and resigned when Moro was found dead in 1978. According to Italian journalist Enrico Deaglio, Cossiga, to justify his lack of action, "accused the leaders of CGIL and of the Italian Communist Party of knowing where Moro was detained". Cossiga was also minister of internal affairs when Fascist terrorists bombed Bologna station in 1980. Francesco Cossiga first assumed the explosion to have been caused by an accident (the explosion of an old boiler located in the basement of the station). Later, in a special session to the Senate, Cossiga supported the theory that neofascists were behind the attack, "unlike leftist terrorism, which strikes at the heart of the state through its representatives, black terrorism prefers massacre because it promotes panic and impulsive reactions."