Francesco Cossiga

Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (born July 26, 1928 in Sassari , Sardinia , † August 17, 2010 in Rome ) was an Italian politician of the former Democrazia Cristiana . He was both Prime Minister (1979–1980) and State President (1985–1992) of the Republic of Italy.

Political career

Cossiga was from 1959 State Secretary in the Ministry of Defense under several governments. His real political rise did not begin until the mid-1970s; he was first Minister without Portfolio in 1974 and then Minister of the Interior in 1975 and 1976 to 1978. However, after the murder of Aldo Moro , he resigned from this office.

In August 1979, Cossiga finally became Prime Minister of a transitional government composed of DC, Liberal Party (PLI), Social Democratic Party (PSDI) and non-party members . In April 1980 he formed his second government as a coalition cabinet between the DC and the Socialist Party (PSI) and the Republican Party (PRI). Although this 39th post-war government was strengthened in the regional elections by winning the DC in June 1980, it came down in September 1980 after a defeat in the vote on the stability program of Cossigas.

In 1983 Cossiga was elected President of the Senate . On June 24, 1985, Cossiga was elected President of the Republic as the successor to Alessandro Pertini in the first ballot with a two-thirds majority . He began his seven-year term on July 9, 1985. At first he exercised his office within the framework of the usual very cautiously and purely representative. Over time, however, he developed into a fierce critic of the frozen party system, who was notorious for his esternazioni ("statements").

After his early resignation on May 28, 1992, the Christian Democrat Oscar Luigi Scalfaro was his successor.

Cossiga had been Senator for life since 1992 and occasionally caused a stir with various political statements. For example, he had submitted three drafts for a constitutional law to hold a referendum on the independence of South Tyrol and a possible relocation to Austria in the Italian parliament, but these were rejected by the South Tyrolean SVP state government and therefore fizzled out. In November 2007, in an interview with the Corriere della Sera , Cossiga ironically made fun of left-wing conspiracy theorists. There he said that democratic circles in the US and Europe, and especially left-wing circles in Italy, knew very well that the attacks of September 11, 2001 were "planned and carried out with the support of the CIA and Mossad" in order to make interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq possible close. On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the crash of Flight 870 off Ustica , Cossiga advised investigating journalists “to go abroad, otherwise something could happen to them - food poisoning or a collision with a truck”.

Most recently, Cossiga was non-party and a member of the autonomous parliamentary group in the Senate .

Cossiga was admitted to the Gemelli Clinic in Rome on August 8, 2010 because of breathing difficulties . After relapsing, he died there on August 17, 2010 at the age of 82.

Others

As President of the Republic, Francesco Cossiga carried out the following official trips abroad:

1985: Norway , Vatican City , Switzerland
1986: Yugoslavia , Belgium , Federal Republic of Germany , Ireland , Canada , Spain , Federal Republic of Germany, United Kingdom
1987: Ireland (private), United Kingdom, Israel
1988: Portugal , Singapore and Australia and New Zealand
1989: Africa trip in February to Egypt , Kenya , Zambia , Mozambique , Zimbabwe and Somalia ; Japan , Poland , FR Germany (private), United States , Algeria
1990: France , Vatican City, San Marino , United Kingdom, Germany
1991: France, Iceland , United States, Vatican City, Czechoslovakia and Hungary , Albania , Spain, Malta , Germany, Switzerland and Liechtenstein , Slovenia , Spain
1992: United States (and United Kingdom, private), Croatia and Slovenia, Portugal, France, Germany and United Kingdom and Belgium, Poland and Russia , United States, Vatican City.

Cossiga also visited the subject of the Sovereign Order of Malta based in Rome.

Web links

Commons : Francesco Cossiga - collection of images, videos and audio files

Page at the Italian Senate (Italian)

Individual evidence

↑ Pronunciation: [ kosˈsiːga ], but more precisely [ ˈkɔssiga ]: Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia of the RAI (Italian).
↑ Francesco Cossiga is dead ( Memento from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Report on stol.it from August 17th, 2010.
↑ https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/18/francesco-cossiga-obituary
↑ Osama-Berlusconi? «Trappola giornalistica» . In: Corriere della sera of November 30, 2007 (Italian).
↑ Stefan Troendle: What happened to flight 870? ( Memento of June 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Article on tagesschau.de from June 26, 2010.
↑ List of trips on archivio.quirinale.it

personal data
SURNAME	Cossiga, Francesco
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Cossiga, Francesco Maurizio (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Italian politician, President of Italy (1985-1992)
DATE OF BIRTH	July 26, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH	Sassari , Sardinia
DATE OF DEATH	17th August 2010
Place of death	Rome

[1] Pronunciation: [ kosˈsiːga ], but more precisely [ ˈkɔssiga ]: Dizionario d'ortografia e di pronunzia of the RAI (Italian).

[2] Francesco Cossiga is dead ( Memento from August 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Report on stol.it from August 17th, 2010.

[3] ttps://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/aug/18/francesco-cossiga-obituary

[4] Osama-Berlusconi? «Trappola giornalistica» . In: Corriere della sera of November 30, 2007 (Italian).

[5] Stefan Troendle: What happened to flight 870? ( Memento of June 29, 2010 in the Internet Archive ). Article on tagesschau.de from June 26, 2010.

[6] List of trips on archivio.quirinale.it