Cossiga. Mattarella: "Murder Moro watershed for him and for Italy"

• The shortest speech in history, Cossiga's only three minutes in 1991

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September 24, 2020 "The kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, with the massacre of the escort men, was a tremendous blow and a watershed in the life of Francesco Cossiga. As it was a watershed in the history of the Republic. Minister Cossiga worked to the release of Moro, his friend and political point of reference, but the efforts did not reach the desired result and the suffering was exacerbated by the succession of letters of which he recognized traits of authenticity. When he found the body of the murdered statesman he executed the his intention to resign, "assuming full political responsibility for the work of the dicastery." This was stated by the president Sergio Mattarella speaking at the University of Sassari on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the death of Francesco Cossiga in a long memory of the political activity of passed away president of the Republic.

The Head of State arrived at the University of Sassari, welcomed by the rector Massimo Carpinelli.

The Nova Euphonia choir greeted the arrival of the Head of State with the anthem of Italy.

After a stop at the display case with the documents of the student career of the president emeritus of Sassari Francesco Cossiga, Mattarella entered the Aula magna with the greeting of the mayor of Sassari, Gian Vittorio Campus, and the president of the Region, Christian Solinas.

"Francesco Cossiga faced the terrorist attack on the Republic and defended democratic institutions with the consent of Parliament, respecting the rule of law and trying to preserve the unity of democratic forces as an indispensable asset in the fight against terror and subversion. The use of new norms and instruments always remained inscribed in the wake of the defense of values ​​and the constitutional order - said the Head of State - And the contrast to insurrectionalist vulgate, as well as to the unacceptable equidistant preaching by proponents of "neither with the State, nor with the BR", was always clean and free from hypocrisy and opportunism by Cossiga.

Cossiga - he continued - started from the consideration that a vision that judged existing institutions as fragile because they await reform, calling for respect for an indeclinable purpose: 'The institutional reforms - he said in the traditional end-of-year message in 1987 - must lead to the essential goal of promoting the growth of democracy. '

A goal that was one with the 'new and exciting spring of the Republic', which he hoped for on the occasion of his inauguration speech as Head of State ".

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" In 1983 Francesco Cossiga who , with his second government, he had resumed dialogue with the Socialist Party, was elected President of the Senate with a very large majority.

At the helm of Palazzo Madama, Cossiga was appreciated for his solidity and impartiality - continues the Head of State - This was the prerequisite for the election as President of the Republic, on 24 June 1985, which took place on the first ballot - which I can recall having personally participated - with the consent of more than three-quarters of the electors, an expression of a united will in supporting the Presidency of the Republic as a garrison of cohesion of the country around the values ​​of the Constitution ". Adding that" development does not translate into civil hope if it is not united to the ability to solve the two great problems of our national life: unemployment and the backwardness of the southern areas. "The far-sighted words of an Italian who served the country with all the strength he was capable of and of which today, at ten years after his death, we honor the memory ".

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"President Cossiga exercised constitutional prerogatives with the qualities that derived from his long experience, and also with the punctuality of a law scholar. He reiterated, with a letter to the Prime Minister in charge Andreotti, that the Constitution confers on the Head of State in the appointment of ministers and described the presidential scrutiny as not compressible "underlines Mattarella during his speech.

Cossiga - explains the Head of State - "in the inauguration speech had taken ordinary people as a point of reference to weld past and future, hoping for a new solidarity" for values ​​not only personal but above all community ". To have civil hope - he said -" there is a need for a social justice that is not descended from above but shared and produced by the citizens. 

" Cossiga's Atlanticism remained a fixed point, even in its tenacious Europeanism.

The convergence on foreign policy between the parties building the Constitution was still to come in the seventies, yet Cossiga continued to express a propensity for confrontation both towards secular and socialist parties, allies of the DC, and towards the opposing Communist Party " underlines the President of the Republic

After the celebration of commemoration of the present emeritus Francesco Cossiga, the Head of State left the University of Sassari to go to the city cemetery to pay homage to the tomb of the Sassari president.

The rector of the University of Sassari Massimo Carpinelli, during the celebration gave a speech entitled "Francesco Cossiga: man of culture, man of state" to remember the President emeritus, who taught Constitutional Law at the University of Sassari.

The commemoration day then continues in the Aula Magna with a conference dedicated to the memory of Cossiga which will be attended by Senator Luigi Zanda with a report entitled "Much of the life and thought of Francesco Cossiga still speaks to Italy", and Professor Omar Chessa who will deal with the theme "Francesco Cossiga and constitutional law".