Concept

Francesco Cossiga

Summary
Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (franˈtʃesko kosˈsiːɡa; Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ˈkosiɣa; 26 July 1928 – 17 August 2010) was an Italian politician. A member of Christian Democracy, he was prime minister of Italy from 1979 to 1980 and the president of Italy from 1985 to 1992. Cossiga is widely considered one of the most prominent and influential politicians of the First Italian Republic. Cossiga served as minister on several occasions, most notably as Italian Minister of the Interior. In that position he re-structured the Italian police, civil protection and secret services. Due to his repressive approach to public protests, he was described as a strongman and labeled "Iron Minister". He was in office at the time of the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades, and resigned as the interior minister when Aldo Moro was found dead in May 1978. Cossiga was the prime minister during the 1980 Bologna station massacre. Before his political career, he was also a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sassari. Francesco Cossiga was born in Sassari on 26 July 1928, from a republican and anti-fascist middle-bourgeois family. His parents were Giuseppe Cossiga and Maria "Mariuccia" Zanfarino. He was the second-degree cousin of brothers Enrico and Giovanni Berlinguer (whose parents were Mario Berlinguer and Maria "Mariuccia" Loriga) because their respective maternal grandfathers, Antonio Zanfarino and Giovanni Loriga, were half-brothers on their mother's side. Although he was commonly called "Cossìga" [kosˈsiːɡa], the original pronunciation of the surname is "Còssiga" [ˈkɔssiɡa]. His surname in Sardinian and Sassarese means "Corsica", likely pointing to the family's origin. At the age of sixteen, he graduated, three years in advance, at the classical lyceum Domenico Alberto Azuni. The following year he joined in the Christian Democracy, and three years later, at only 19 years old, he graduated in law and started a university career as professor of constitutional law at the faculty of jurisprudence of the University of Sassari.
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