30 Facts About Aldo Moro

Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the Christian Democracy.

Aldo Moro served as prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1976.

From March 1959 until January 1964, Aldo Moro served as secretary of the Christian Democracy.

Aldo Moro was one of Italy's longest-serving post-war prime ministers, leading the country for more than six years.

An intellectual and a patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his own party, during his rule, Aldo Moro implemented a series of social and economic reforms which deeply modernized the country.

Aldo Moro was born in 1916 in Maglie, near Lecce, in the Apulia region, into a family from Ugento.

Aldo Moro's father, Renato Moro, was a school inspector, while his mother, Fida Sticchi, was a teacher.

In 1939, under the approval of Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, whom he had befriended, Aldo Moro was chosen as president of the association; he kept the post until 1942 when he was forced to fight in the World War II and was succeeded by Giulio Andreotti, who at the time was a law student from Rome.

In July 1943, Moro contributed, along with Mario Ferrari Aggradi, Paolo Emilio Taviani, Guido Gonella, Giuseppe Capograssi, Ferruccio Pergolesi, Vittore Branca, Giorgio La Pira, Giuseppe Medici and Andreotti, to the creation of the Code of Camaldoli, a document planning of economic policy drawn up by members of the Italian Catholic forces.

In 1963 Aldo Moro was transferred to La Sapienza University of Rome, as a professor of the institutions of law and criminal procedure.

Aldo Moro developed his interest in politics between 1943 and 1945.

In 1953, Aldo Moro was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he held the position of chairman of the DC parliamentary group.

On 20 May, Adone Zoli was sworn in as the new head of government and Aldo Moro was appointed Minister of Education However, after the 1958 general election, Zoli resigned and, on 1 July 1958, Fanfani was sworn in as new Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government with the PSDI, and case-by-case support by the Italian Republican Party.

Aldo Moro was confirmed as the head of Italian education and remained in office until February 1959.

Aldo Moro refused the office of Prime Minister, preferring to provisionally maintain his more influential post at the head of the party.

However the Christian Democrats decided to replace the incumbent premier, Fanfani, with a provisional administration led by impartial President of the Chamber, Giovanni Leone; but, when the congress of the PSI in autumn authorized a full engagement of the party into the government, Leone resigned and Aldo Moro became the new Prime Minister.

Aldo Moro's government was unevenly supported by the DC, but by the Italian Socialist Party, along with the minor Italian Republican Party and Italian Democratic Socialist Party.

Differently from his predecessor, Giovanni Leone, who even became the head of SADE's team of lawyers, Aldo Moro acted strongly to condemn the managers of the society, immediately dismissing the administrative officials who had supervised the construction of the dam.

Aldo Moro forced Yasser Arafat to promise not to carry out terrorist attacks in Italian territory, with a commitment that was known as the "Moro pact".

Aldo Moro was a great man, a true patriot, who wanted to save Italy some headaches, but I never met him.

Fanfani retired after several unsuccessful ballots and Aldo Moro was then proposed as a candidate by the left-wing faction; however the right-wing strongly opposed him and the moderate conservative Christian Democrats Giovanni Leone was slightly preferred to him.

However, in 1976 the PSI secretary, Francesco De Martino, withdrew the external support to the government and Aldo Moro was forced to resign.

Aldo Moro strongly defended his long-time friend, Mariano Rumor, during the parliamentary debate on the Lockheed scandal, and some journalists reported that he might have been involved in the bribery too.

The early-1978 proposal by Aldo Moro of starting a cabinet composed by Christian democrats and socialists, externally supported by the communists was strongly opposed by both superpowers.

On 16 March 1978, on Via Fani, in Rome, a unit of the militant far-left organisation known as Red Brigades blocked the two-car convoy which was carrying Aldo Moro and kidnapped him, murdering his five bodyguards.

When it became clear that the government did not want to negotiate, the Red Brigades had a "people's trial", in which Aldo Moro was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Aldo Moro's body was left in the trunk of a red Renault 4 on Via Michelangelo Caetani towards the Tiber River near the Roman Ghetto.

In 2005, Sergio Flamigni, a leftist politician and writer, who had served on a parliamentary inquiry on the Aldo Moro case, suggested the involvement of the Operation Gladio network directed by NATO.

Aldo Moro asserted that Gladio had manipulated Moretti as a way to take over the BR to effect a strategy of tension aimed at creating popular demand for a new, right-wing law-and-order regime.

The halting of proceedings was due to Antonio Mennini, the priest who heard his last confession, being allowed to provide a statement to a tribunal in regards to Aldo Moro's kidnapping and confession.