Francesco Maurizio Cossiga was an Italian politician.
38 Facts About Francesco Cossiga
2.
Francesco Cossiga served as minister on several occasions, most notably as Minister of the Interior.
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Francesco Cossiga was in office at the time of the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades, and resigned as Minister of the Interior when Moro was found dead in 1978.
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Francesco Cossiga was Prime Minister during the Bologna station bombing in 1980.
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Francesco Cossiga was born in Sassari on 26 July 1928, from a republican and anti-fascist middle-bourgeois family.
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Francesco Cossiga's parents were Giuseppe Cossiga and Maria "Mariuccia" Zanfarino.
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Francesco Cossiga was the second-degree cousin of brothers Enrico and Giovanni Berlinguer because their respective maternal grandfathers, Antonio Zanfarino and Giovanni Loriga, were half-brothers on their mother's side.
8.
From November 1974 to February 1976 Francesco Cossiga was Minister of Public Administration in Moro's fourth government.
9.
On 12 February 1976, Francesco Cossiga was appointed Minister of the Interior, by Prime Minister Moro.
10.
Francesco Cossiga has been often described as a strongman and labeled "iron minister", for repressing public protests.
11.
Francesco Cossiga sent armored vehicles into the university area and other hot spots of the city to quell what he perceived as guerrilla warfare.
12.
Francesco Cossiga was in office at the time of the kidnapping and murder of the Christian Democratic leader Aldo Moro by the Marxist-Leninist extreme-left terrorist group Red Brigades.
13.
Francesco Cossiga omitted to reveal the decisions and the activities of the committee however.
14.
Francesco Cossiga was accused by Moro himself, in his letters who wrote during his detention, saying that "his blood will fall over him".
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Francesco Cossiga led a government's coalition composed by Christian Democrats, Socialists, Democratic Socialists, Republicans and Liberals.
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Francesco Cossiga was head of the government during the Bologna massacre, a terrorist bombing of the Bologna Central Station on the morning of 2 August 1980, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 200.
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Francesco Cossiga first assumed the explosion to have been caused by an accident.
18.
Francesco Cossiga declared being convinced of the innocence of Francesca Mambro and Giuseppe Valerio Fioravanti, the two neo-fascist terrorists accused of the massacre.
19.
In October 1980, Francesco Cossiga resigned as Prime Minister after the rejection of the annual budget bill by the Italian Parliament.
20.
Francesco Cossiga's candidacy was endorsed by the Christian Democracy, but supported by communists, socialists, social democrats, liberals and republicans.
21.
Francesco Cossiga took office on 29 June 1985 on an interim basis after the resignation of Outgoing President Sandro Pertini, but was not sworn in until a few days later, on 3 July.
22.
The Francesco Cossiga presidency was essentially divided into two phases related to the attitudes of the head of state.
23.
Francesco Cossiga opined that the Italian parties, especially the Christian Democrats and the Communists had to take into account the deep changes brought about by the fall of the Berlin Wall and the end of the Cold War.
24.
Francesco Cossiga acknowledged his involvement in the establishment of the organization.
25.
Francesco Cossiga resigned two months before the end of his term, on 25 April 1992.
26.
On 12 January 1997, Francesco Cossiga survived unscathed a railway accident, while traveling on a high-speed train from Milan to Rome that derailed near Piacenza.
27.
In February 1998, Francesco Cossiga created the Democratic Union for the Republic, a Christian democratic political party, declaring it to be politically central.
28.
Francesco Cossiga declared that his support for D'Alema was intended to end the conventional exclusion of the former communist leaders from the premiership in Italy.
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In 1999 UDR was dissolved and Francesco Cossiga returned to his activities as a Senator, with competences in the Military Affairs' Commission.
30.
In May 2006, Francesco Cossiga gave his support to the formation of Prodi's second government.
31.
Francesco Cossiga's resignation was rejected on 31 January 2007 by a vote of the Senate.
32.
In May 2008, Francesco Cossiga voted in favor of the government of Silvio Berlusconi.
33.
Francesco Cossiga died on 17 August 2010 from respiratory problems at the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic.
34.
Francesco Cossiga is buried in the public cemetery of Sassari, in the family tomb, not far from one of his predecessors as President of Italy, Antonio Segni.
35.
In 2020, Francesco Cossiga was depicted in the film Rose Island, which told the story of the Republic of Rose Island, played by Luca Della Bianca.
36.
In 2008, Francesco Cossiga said that Mario Draghi was "a craven moneyman".
37.
Francesco Cossiga blamed the loss of Itavia Flight 870, a passenger jet that crashed in 1980 with the loss of all 81 people on board, on a missile fired from a French Navy aircraft.
38.
Francesco Cossiga has been given honours and awards by other countries.