Aldo Romeo Luigi Moro (; 23 September 1916 – 9 May 1978) was an Italian statesman and a prominent member of the
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
(DC). He served as
prime minister of Italy from December 1963 to June 1968 and then from November 1974 to July 1976.
Moro also served as
Minister of Foreign Affairs from May 1969 to July 1972 and again from July 1973 to November 1974. During his ministry, he implemented a pro-
Arab policy. Moreover, he was appointed
Minister of Justice and of
Public Education
State schools (in England, Wales, Australia and New Zealand) or public schools (Scottish English and North American English) are generally primary or secondary schools that educate all students without charge. They are funded in whole or in pa ...
during the 1950s. From March 1959 until January 1964, Moro served as
secretary of the Christian Democracy. On 16 March 1978 he
was kidnapped by the far-left armed group
Red Brigades and killed after 55 days of captivity.
[Il rapimento Moro](_blank)
, ''Rai Scuola''
He 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, Moro implemented a series of social and economic reforms which deeply modernized the country. Due to his accommodation with the communist leader
Enrico Berlinguer, known as the
Historic Compromise, Moro is widely considered one of the most prominent fathers of modern Italian
centre-left and one of the greatest and most popular leaders in the history of the Italian Republic.
Early life
Aldo Moro was born in 1916 in
Maglie, near
Lecce
Lecce ( ); el, label=Griko, Luppìu, script=Latn; la, Lupiae; grc, Λουπίαι, translit=Loupíai), group=pron is a historic city of 95,766 inhabitants (2015) in southern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Lecce, the province ...
, in the
Apulia
it, Pugliese
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, population_blank1 =
, demographics_type1 =
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region, into a family from
Ugento. His father, Renato Moro, was a school inspector, while his mother, Fida Sticchi, was a teacher. At the age of 4, he moved with his family to
Milan, but they soon moved back to Apulia, where he gained a classical high school degree at
Archita lyceum in
Taranto. In 1934, his family moved to
Bari
Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...
, where he studied law at the local
University, graduating in 1939. After graduation, he became a professor of philosophy of law and colonial policy (1941) and of
criminal law
Criminal law is the body of law that relates to crime. It prescribes conduct perceived as threatening, harmful, or otherwise endangering to the property, health, safety, and moral welfare of people inclusive of one's self. Most criminal law i ...
(1942), at the University of Bari.
In 1935, he joined the
Italian Catholic Federation of University Students (FUCI) of Bari. In 1939, under the approval of
Giovanni Battista Montini, the future Pope Paul VI, whom he had befriended, 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
Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...
, who at the time was a law student from Rome. During his university years, Italy was ruled by the
fascist regime of
Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini (; 29 July 188328 April 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who founded and led the National Fascist Party. He was Prime Minister of Italy from the March on Rome in 1922 until his deposition in 194 ...
, and Moro took part in students competitions known as Lictors of Culture and Art organised by local fascist students' organisation, the University Fascist Groups. In 1943, along with other Catholic students, he founded the periodical ''La Rassegna'', which was published until 1945.
In July 1943, Moro contributed, along with Mario Ferrari Aggradi,
Paolo Emilio Taviani, Guido Gonella,
Giuseppe Capograssi
Giuseppe is the Italian form of the given name Joseph,
from Latin Iōsēphus from Ancient Greek Ἰωσήφ (Iōsḗph), from Hebrew יוסף.
It is the most common name in Italy and is unique (97%) to it.
The feminine form of the name is Giusep ...
, 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. The Code served as inspiration and guideline for economic policy of the future Christian democrats.
In 1945, he married
Eleonora Chiavarelli
Eleonora Chiavarelli (1915 – 17 July 2010) was an Italian woman who was the spouse of Aldo Moro, a politician who was kidnapped and assassinated in 1978.
Biography
Chiavarelli was born in 1915 in Montemarciano
Montemarciano is a ''comune'' ...
(1915–2010), with whom he had four children: Maria Fida (born 1946), Agnese (1952), Anna, and Giovanni (1958). In 1963 Moro was transferred to
La Sapienza University of Rome, as a professor of the institutions of law and criminal procedure.
Early political career
Aldo Moro developed his interest in politics between 1943 and 1945. Initially, he seemed to be very interested in the social-democratic component of the
Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but then he started cooperating with other Christian democratic politicians in opposition to the fascist regime. During these years he met
Alcide De Gasperi,
Mario Scelba,
Giovanni Gronchi and
Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War an ...
. On 19 March 1943 the group reunited in the house of
Giuseppe Spataro officially formed the
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism.
It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...
(DC). In the DC, he joined the left-wing faction led by
Giuseppe Dossetti, of whom he became a close ally. In 1945 he became director of the magazine ''Studium'' and president of the Graduated Movement of the
Catholic Action (AC), a widespread
Roman Catholic lay association.
In 1946, he was appointed vice-president of the Christian Democracy and
elected member of the
Constitutional Assembly, where he took part in the work to redact the
Italian Constitution. Moro run for the constituency of
Bari–Foggia, where he received nearly 28,000 votes.
In 1948,
he was elected with 63,000 votes to the newly formed
Chamber of Deputies
The chamber of deputies is the lower house in many bicameral legislatures and the sole house in some unicameral legislatures.
Description
Historically, French Chamber of Deputies was the lower house of the French Parliament during the Bourbon R ...
and appointed Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs in the
De Gasperi V Cabinet, from 23 May 1948 to 27 January 1950.
After Dossetti's retirement in 1952, Moro founded, along with
Antonio Segni,
Emilio Colombo and
Mariano Rumor
Mariano Rumor (; 16 June 1915 – 22 January 1990) was an Italian politician and statesman. A member of the Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy (DC), he served as the List of prime ministers of Italy, 39th Prime Minister of Italy fr ...
, the Democratic Initiative faction, led by his old friend Fanfani.
In government
In 1953, Moro
was re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies, where he held the position of chairman of the DC parliamentary group. In 1955, was appointed as
Minister of Grace and Justice in the
cabinet led by Antonio Segni. In the following year he resulted among the most voted during the party's congress.
In May 1957, the
Italian Socialist Democratic Party
The Italian Democratic Socialist Party (, PSDI), also known as Italian Social Democratic Party, was a minor social-democratic political party in Italy. The longest serving partner in government for Christian Democracy, the PSDI had been an imp ...
(PSDI) withdrew its support to the government and on 6 May, Segni resigned. On 20 May,
Adone Zoli was sworn in as the new head of government and 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 (PRI). Moro was confirmed as the head of Italian education and remained in office until February 1959. During his tenure, he introduced the study of
civic education in schools.
In March 1959, after Fanfani's resignation as Prime Minister, a new congress was called. The leaders of the Democratic Initiative faction reunited themselves in the
convent of
Dorothea of Caesarea
Dorothea of Caesarea (''Dorothea, Dora''; often just called ''Saint Dorothy'', died ca. 311 AD) is a 4th-century virgin martyr who was executed at Caesarea Mazaca. Evidence for her actual historical existence or ''acta'' is very sparse. She is cal ...
, where they abandoned the leftist policies promoted by Fanfani and founded the ''Dorotei'' (Dorotheans) faction. In the party's national council, Moro was elected
Secretary of DC and was then confirmed in the October's congress held in
Florence.
After the brief right-wing government led by
Fernando Tambroni in 1960, supported by the decisive votes of the neo-fascist
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
(MSI), the renovated alliance between Moro as secretary and Fanfani as Prime Minister led the subsequent National Congress, held in
Naples in 1962, to approve with a large majority a line of collaboration with the
Italian Socialist Party (PSI).
The
1963 general election was characterized by a lack of consensus for the DC; in fact, the election was held after the launch of the centre-left formula by the Christian Democracy, a coalition based upon the alliance with the Socialists, which had left their alignment with the
Soviet Union. Some rightist electors abandoned the DC for the
Italian Liberal Party (PLI), which was asking for a centre-right government and received votes also from the quarrelsome monarchist area. 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
Giovanni Leone (; 3 November 1908 – 9 November 2001) was an Italian politician, jurist, and university professor. A founding member of the Christian Democracy (DC), Leone served as the President of Italy from December 1971 until June 1978. H ...
; but, when the congress of the PSI in autumn authorized a full engagement of the party into the government, Leone resigned and Moro became the new Prime Minister.
First term as prime minister
Aldo Moro's government was unevenly supported by the DC, but also by the Italian Socialist Party, along with the minor Italian Republican Party and Italian Democratic Socialist Party. The coalition was also known as
Organic Centre-left and was characterized by
consociationalist
Consociationalism ( ) is a form of democratic power sharing. Political scientists define a consociational state as one which has major internal divisions along ethnic, religious, or linguistic lines, but which remains stable due to consultation a ...
and
social corporatist
Social corporatism, also called social democratic corporatism, is a form of economic Tripartism, tripartite corporatism based upon a social partnership between the interests of Capital (economics), capital and Labour (economics), labour, involvin ...
tendencies.
Social reforms
During Moro's premiership, a wide range of social reforms was carried out. The 1967 Bridge Law (''Legge Ponte'') introduced urgent housing provisions as part of an envisioned reform of the entire sector, such as the introduction of minimum standards for housing and the environment. A reform, promulgated on 14 December 1963, introduced an annual allowance for university students with income below a given level. Another law, promulgated on 10 March 1968, introduced voluntary public pre-elementary education for children aged three to five years. While a bill, approved on 21 July 1965, extended the program of
social security.
Moreover, the legal
minimum wage
A minimum wage is the lowest remuneration that employers can legally pay their employees—the price floor below which employees may not sell their labor. Most countries had introduced minimum wage legislation by the end of the 20th century. Bec ...
was raised, all current pensions were revalued, seniority pensions were introduced (after 35 years of contributions workers could retire even before attaining pensionable age), and within the Social Security National Institute (INPS), a Social Fund (''Fondo Sociale'') was established, ensuring to all members pensioners a basic uniform pension largely financed by the state, known as the "social pension". A law, approved on 22 July 1966, extended social security insurance to small traders, while the law of 22 July 1966 extended health insurance to retired traders. Another important reform was implemented with a bill, approved on 29 May 1967, which extended compulsory
health insurance
Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...
to retired farmers, tenant farmers, and sharecroppers, and extended health insurance to the unemployed in receipt of unemployment benefits. Moreover, a law of 5 November 1968 extended family allowances to the unemployed who received unemployment benefits.
[Growth to Limits: The Western European Welfare States Since World War II Volume 4 edited by Peter Flora.]
Vajont Dam disaster
During his premiership, Moro had to face the outcome of one of the most tragic events in Italian republican history, the
Vajont Dam disaster. On 9 October 1963, a few weeks before his oath as Prime Minister, a landslide occurred on
Monte Toc, in the province of
Pordenone
Pordenone (; Venetian and fur, Pordenon) is the main ''comune'' of Pordenone province of northeast Italy in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
The name comes from Latin ''Portus Naonis'', meaning 'port on the Noncello (Latin ''Naon'') River'.
...
. The landslide caused a
megatsunami in the artificial lake in which 50 million cubic metres of water overtopped the dam in a wave of , leading to the complete destruction of several villages and towns, and 1,917 deaths.
In the previous months, the Adriatic Society of Electricity (SADE) and the Italian government, which both owned the dam, dismissed evidence and concealed reports describing the geological instability of Monte Toc on the southern side of the basin and other early warning signs reported prior to the disaster.
Immediately after the disaster, government and local authorities insisted on attributing the tragedy to an unexpected and unavoidable natural event. However, numerous warnings, signs of danger, and negative appraisals had been disregarded in the previous months and the eventual attempt to safely control the landslide into the lake by lowering its level came when the landslide was almost imminent and was too late to prevent it. The communist newspaper ''
L'Unità'' was the first to denounce the actions of management and government. The DC accused the PCI of political profiteering from the tragedy, promising to bring justice to the people killed in the disaster.
Differently from his predecessor, Giovanni Leone, who even became the head of SADE's team of lawyers, Moro acted strongly to condemn the managers of the society, immediately dismissing the administrative officials who had supervised the construction of the dam.
Coalition crisis and presidential election
On 25 June 1964, the government was beaten on the budget law for the
Italian Ministry of Education concerning the financing of private education, and on the same day Moro resigned. The moderate Christian Democratic
President of Italy,
Antonio Segni, during the presidential consultations for the formation of a new cabinet, asked the socialist leader
Pietro Nenni to exit from the government majority.
On 16 July, Segni sent the
Carabinieri general, Giovanni De Lorenzo, to a meeting of representatives of DC, to deliver a message in case the negotiations around the formation of a new centre-left government would fail. According to some historians, De Lorenzo reported that President Segni was ready to give a subsequent mandate to the President of the Senate
Cesare Merzagora, asking him of forming a "president's government", composed by all the conservative forces in the Parliament. Moro, on the other hand, managed to form another centre-left majority. During the negotiations, Nenni had accepted the downsizing of his reform programs and, on 17 July, Moro went to the
Quirinal Palace, with the acceptance of the assignment and the list of ministers of his second government.
In August 1964, President Segni had a serious
cerebral hemorrhage
Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH), also known as cerebral bleed, intraparenchymal bleed, and hemorrhagic stroke, or haemorrhagic stroke, is a sudden bleeding into the tissues of the brain, into its ventricles, or into both. It is one kind of bleed ...
and resigned after a few months. In December
presidential election, Moro and his majority tried to elect a leftist politician at the Quirinal Palace. On the twenty-first round of voting, the leader of the PSDI and former President of the
Constituent Assembly Giuseppe Saragat
Giuseppe Saragat (; 19 September 1898 – 11 June 1988) was an Italian politician who served as the president of Italy from 1964 to 1971.
Early life
Born to Sardinian parents, he was a member of the Unitary Socialist Party (Italy, 1922), Unita ...
was elected president with 646 votes out of 963. Saragat was the first left-wing politician to become President of the Republic.
Resignation
Despite the opposition by Segni and other prominent rightist Christian Democrats, the centre-left coalition, the first one for the Italian post-war political life, stayed in power for nearly five years, until the
1968 general election, which was characterised by a defeat for DC's centre-left allies. The socialists and the social democrats run in a joint list named
Unified Socialist Party (PSU), which however lost many votes compared to the previous election, while the communists gained ground, achieving 30% of votes in the Senate.
Dieter Nohlen
Dieter Nohlen (born 6 November 1939) is a German academic and political scientist. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Political Science in the Faculty of Economic and Social Sciences of the University of Heidelberg. An expe ...
& Philip Stöver (2010) ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'', p1048 The PSI and PSDI decided to exit from the government and Saragat appointed Giovanni Leone at the head of the a new cabinet, composed only by Christian Democracy's members.
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In the 1968 DC congress, Moro yielded the secretariat and passed to internal opposition. On 5 August 1969, he was appointed
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs
The Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs is the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Italy. The office was one of the positions which Italy inherited from the Kingdom of Sardinia where it was the most ancient ministry of the government: thi ...
by Prime Minister
Mariano Rumor
Mariano Rumor (; 16 June 1915 – 22 January 1990) was an Italian politician and statesman. A member of the Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy (DC), he served as the List of prime ministers of Italy, 39th Prime Minister of Italy fr ...
, a position that he also held under the premierships of
Emilio Colombo and
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...
.
Pro-Arab policies
During his ministry, Moro continued the pro-Arab policy of his predecessor Fanfani. He forced
Yasser Arafat to promise not to carry out
terrorist attacks in Italian territory, with a commitment that was known as the "Moro pact".
The existence of this pact and its validity was confirmed by
Bassam Abu Sharif, a long-time leader of the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Interviewed by the Italian newspaper ''
Corriere della Sera
The ''Corriere della Sera'' (; en, "Evening Courier") is an Italian daily newspaper published in Milan with an average daily circulation of 410,242 copies in December 2015.
First published on 5 March 1876, ''Corriere della Sera'' is one of It ...
'', he confirmed the existence of an agreement between Italy and the Popular Front thanks to which, the PFLP could "transport weapons and explosives, guaranteeing immunity from attacks in return". Abu Sharif also declared:" I personally followed the negotiations for the agreement. Aldo Moro was a great man, a true patriot, who wanted to save Italy some headaches, but I never met him. We discussed the details with an admiral and agents of the Italian secret service. The agreement was defined and since then we have always respected it; we were allowed to organize small transits, passages, and purely Palestinian operations, without involving Italians. After the deal, every time I came to Rome, two cars were waiting for me to protect myself. For our part, we also guaranteed to avoid embarrassment to your country, that is attacks which started directly from the Italian soil." This version was confirmed also by former President of Italy
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; sc, Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian pol ...
, who stated that Moro was the real and only creator of the pact.
Moro also had to cope with the difficult situation which erupted following the coup of
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
in Libya, a very important country for Italian interests not only for colonial ties, but also for its
energy resources
World energy resources are the estimated maximum capacity for energy production given all available resources on Earth. They can be divided by type into fossil fuel, nuclear fuel and renewable resources.
Fossil fuel
Remaining reserves of f ...
and the presence of about 20,000 Italians.
1971 presidential election
In
1971 *
The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 10, and August 6).
The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history.
Events
Ja ...
, Amintore Fanfani was proposed as Christian Democracy's candidate for the Presidency of the Republic. However his candidacy was weakened by the divisions within his own party and the candidacy of the socialist
Francesco De Martino, who received votes from PCI, PSI and some PSDI members.
Fanfani retired after several unsuccessful ballots and 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. At the twenty third round Leone was finally elected with a centre-right majority, with 518 votes out of 996, including those of the neo-fascist
Italian Social Movement
The Italian Social Movement ( it, Movimento Sociale Italiano, MSI) was a neo-fascist political party in Italy. A far-right party, it presented itself until the 1990s as the defender of Italian fascism's legacy, and later moved towards national ...
(MSI).
Italicus Express bombing
On 4 August 1974,
a bomb exploded on the Italicus Express, killing 12 people and injuring 48. The train was travelling from
Rome to
Munich; having left
Florence about 45 minutes earlier, it was approaching the end of the long
San Benedetto Val di Sambro tunnel under the
Apennines
The Apennines or Apennine Mountains (; grc-gre, links=no, Ἀπέννινα ὄρη or Ἀπέννινον ὄρος; la, Appenninus or – a singular with plural meaning;''Apenninus'' (Greek or ) has the form of an adjective, which wou ...
. The bomb had been placed in the fifth
passenger car of the train and exploded at 01:23, while the train was reaching the end of the tunnel.
The effects of the explosion and subsequent fire would have been even more terrible if the train had remained inside the tunnel.
According to what Moro's daughter, Maria Fida, stated in 2004, Moro should have been on board, but a few minutes before departure he was joined by some officials of the Ministry who made him get off to sign some important documents. According to some reconstructions, Aldo Moro would have been the real target of the attack.
Second term as Prime Minister
In October 1974, Rumor resigned as Prime Minister after failing to come to an agreement on how to deal with rising economic inflation. In November, President Leone gave Moro the task of forming a new cabinet; he was sworn in on 23 November, at the head a cabinet composed by DC and PRI, externally supported by PSI and PSDI.
Even during his second term as Prime Minister, the government implemented a series of important social reforms. A law, approved on 9 June 1975, increased the number of occupational diseases and extended the duration of linked insurance and benefit; while a bill, approved on 3 June 1975, introduced various improvements for pensioners. Moreover, the multiplying coefficient was raised to 2% and it was applied to average earnings of the best 3 years in the last 10 years of work and automatic annual adjustment of minimum pensions. A law of 27 December 1975 implemented ''ad hoc'' upgradings of cash benefits for certain diseases.
Osimo Treaty
During his premiership, Moro signed the
Osimo Treaty
The Treaty of Osimo was signed on 10 November 1975 by Italy and Yugoslavia in Osimo, Italy, to definitively divide the Free Territory of Trieste between the two states: the port city of Trieste with a narrow coastal strip to the north-west (Zon ...
with
Yugoslavia, defining the official partition of the
Free Territory of Trieste. The port city of
Trieste with a narrow coastal strip to the north west (Zone A) was given to Italy; a portion of the north-western part of the Istrian peninsula (Zone B) was given to Yugoslavia.
The Italian government was harshly criticized for signing the treaty, particularly for the secretive way in which negotiations were carried out, skipping the traditional diplomatic channels. Italian nationalists of the MSI rejected the idea of giving up
Istria
Istria ( ; Croatian language, Croatian and Slovene language, Slovene: ; ist, Eîstria; Istro-Romanian language, Istro-Romanian, Italian language, Italian and Venetian language, Venetian: ; formerly in Latin and in Ancient Greek) is the larges ...
, since Istria had been an ancient "Italian" region together with the Venetian region (''
Venetia et Histria'').
Furthermore, Istria had belonged to Italy for 25 years between
World War I and the end of
World War II, and the west coast of Istria had long had a sizeable Italian minority population.
Some nationalist politicians called for the prosecution of Moro and his Foreign Affairs Minister, Rumor, for the crime of
treason, as stated in Article 241 of the Italian Criminal Code, which mandated a life sentence for anybody found guilty of aiding and abetting a foreign power to exert its sovereignty on the national territory.
Resignation
Despite the tensions within the government's majority, the close relations between Moro and the communist leader,
Enrico Berlinguer, guaranteed a certain stability to Moro's governments, allowing them a capacity to act that went beyond the premises that had seen them born.
The fourth Moro government, with
Ugo La Malfa as Deputy Prime Minister, started the first dialogue with the PCI, with the aim of beginning a new phase to strengthen the Italian democratic system. However, in 1976 the PSI secretary,
Francesco De Martino, withdrew the external support to the government and Moro was forced to resign.
Historic compromise
After the
1976 general election, the PCI gained a historic 34% votes and Moro became a vocal supporter of the necessity of starting a dialogue between DC and PCI. Moro's main aim was to widen the democratic base of the government, including the PCI in the parliamentary majority: the cabinets should have been able to represent a larger number of voters and parties. According to him, the DC should have been as the centre of a coalition system based on the principles of
consociative democracy. This process was known as
Historic Compromise.
Between 1976 and 1977, Berlinguer's PCI broke with the
Communist Party of the Soviet Union
"Hymn of the Bolshevik Party"
, headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow
, general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last)
, founded =
, banned =
, founder = Vladimir Lenin
, newspaper ...
, implementing, with Spanish and French communist parties, a new political ideology known as
Eurocommunism. Such a move made eventual cooperation more acceptable for Christian democratic voters, and the two parties began an intense parliamentary debate, in a moment of deep social crises.
In 1977, Moro was personally involved in international disputes. He strongly defended his long-time friend,
Mariano Rumor
Mariano Rumor (; 16 June 1915 – 22 January 1990) was an Italian politician and statesman. A member of the Christian Democracy (Italy), Christian Democracy (DC), he served as the List of prime ministers of Italy, 39th Prime Minister of Italy fr ...
, during the parliamentary debate on the
Lockheed scandal, and some journalists reported that he might have been involved in the bribery too. The allegation, with the aim of politically destroying Moro and avoiding the risk of a DC–PCI–PSI cabinet, failed when Moro was cleared on 3 March 1978, 13 days before his kidnapping.
The early-1978 proposal by Moro of starting a cabinet composed by Christian democrats and socialists, externally supported by the communists was strongly opposed by both
superpowers. The United States feared that the cooperation between PCI and DC might have allowed the communists to gain information on strategic
NATO military plans and installations. Moreover, the participation in the government of the communists in a Western country would have represented a cultural failure for the USA. On the other hand, the Soviets considered the potential participation by the Italian Communist Party in a cabinet as a form of emancipation from Moscow and rapprochement to the Americans.
Kidnapping and death
On 16 March 1978, on Via Fani, in Rome, a unit of the militant far-left organisation known as
Red Brigades (BR) blocked the two-car convoy which was carrying Moro and kidnapped him, murdering his five bodyguards. On the day of his kidnapping, Moro was on his way to a session of the Chamber of Deputies, where a discussion was to take place regarding a vote of confidence for a new government led by
Giulio Andreotti
Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...
that would have, for the first time, the support of the Communist Party. It was to be the first implementation of Moro's strategic political vision.
In the following days, trade unions called for a
general strike
A general strike refers to a strike action in which participants cease all economic activity, such as working, to strengthen the bargaining position of a trade union or achieve a common social or political goal. They are organised by large co ...
, while security forces made hundreds of raids in Rome,
Milan,
Turin, and other cities searching for Moro's location. After a few days, even
Pope Paul VI, a close friend of Moro's, intervened, offering himself in exchange for Aldo Moro.
Negotiations and captivity letters
The Red Brigades proposed exchanging Moro's life for the freedom of several prisoners.
There has been speculation that during his detention that many knew where he was hidden. The government immediately took a hard-line position: the "State must not bend to terrorist demands". However, this position was openly criticised by prominent Christian Democracy party members such as
Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War an ...
and
Giovanni Leone
Giovanni Leone (; 3 November 1908 – 9 November 2001) was an Italian politician, jurist, and university professor. A founding member of the Christian Democracy (DC), Leone served as the President of Italy from December 1971 until June 1978. H ...
, who at the time was serving as President of Italy.
On 2 April
Romano Prodi,
Mario Baldassarri
Mario Baldassarri (born 10 September 1946) is an Italian economist and politician. He was a senator from 2006 to 2013.
Born in Macerata, he was vice-minister of Economy and Finance in Silvio Berlusconi's second and third governments, from 2001 ...
, and Alberto Clò, three professors of the
University of Bologna, passed on a tip about a safe-house where the Red Brigades might have been holding Moro. Prodi claimed he had been given the tip by the founders of the Christian Democrats, from beyond a grave in a
séance and a
Ouija board, which gave the names of
Viterbo,
Bolsena and
Gradoli.
During the investigation of Moro's kidnapping, some members of
law enforcement and of the secret services advocated for the use of torture against terrorists, but prominent military-like General
Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa was against this. Dalla Chiesa once stated: "Italy can survive the loss of Aldo Moro, but it would not survive the introduction of torture."
During his kidnapping, Moro wrote several letters to the leaders of the Christian Democrats and to Pope Paul VI. Some of those letters, including one that was very critical of Giulio Andreotti, were kept secret for more than a decade and published only in the early 1990s.
In his letters, Moro said that the state's primary focus should be saving lives and that the government should comply with his kidnappers' demands. Most of the DC's leaders argued that the letters did not express Moro's genuine wishes, claiming they were written under duress, and thus refused all negotiations. This position was in stark contrast to the requests of Moro's family. In his appeal to the terrorists, Pope Paul VI asked them to release Moro "without conditions".
Murder
When it became clear that the government did not want to negotiate, the Red Brigades had a "people's trial", in which Moro was found guilty and sentenced to death. Then they sent a last demand to the Italian authorities, stating that if 16 Red Brigades prisoners were not released, Moro would be killed. The Italian authorities responded with a large-scale manhunt, which was unsuccessful.
On 9 May 1978, the terrorists placed Moro in a car and told him to cover himself with a blanket, saying that they were going to transport him to another location. After Moro was covered they shot him ten times. According to the official reconstruction after a series of trials, the killer was
Mario Moretti. 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.
After the recovery of Moro's body, the
Minister of the Interior,
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; sc, Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian pol ...
, resigned. Pope Paul VI personally officiated in Moro's
funeral mass.
New theories, revelations, and controversies
In 2005,
Sergio Flamigni
Sergio Flamigni (born 22 October 1925) is an Italian politician and writer. A member of the Italian Communist Party (PCI), he took part in the Italian Parliament's investigative commissions on the murder of Aldo Moro, the Propaganda Due scandal ...
, a leftist politician and writer, who had served on a parliamentary inquiry on the Moro case, suggested the involvement of the
Operation Gladio
Operation Gladio is the codename for clandestine "stay-behind" operations of armed resistance that were organized by the Western Union (alliance), Western Union (WU), and subsequently by NATO and the CIA, in collaboration with several European Int ...
network directed by
NATO. He asserted that Gladio had manipulated Moretti as a way to take over the BR to effect a
strategy of tension
A strategy of tension ( it, strategia della tensione) is a policy wherein violent struggle is encouraged rather than suppressed. The purpose is to create a general feeling of insecurity in the population and make people seek security in a strong go ...
aimed at creating popular demand for a new, right-wing law-and-order regime.
In 2006,
Steve Pieczenik was interviewed by Emmanuel Amara in his documentary film ''Les derniers jours d'Aldo Moro'' ("The Last Days of Aldo Moro"). In the interview, Pieczenik, an expert on international terrorism and negotiating strategies who had been brought to Italy as a consultant to Interior Minister
Francesco Cossiga
Francesco Maurizio Cossiga (; sc, Frantziscu Maurìtziu Còssiga, ; 1928 – 2010)
. was an Italian pol ...
's Crisis Committee, stated that: "We had to sacrifice Aldo Moro to maintain the stability of Italy".
[Emmanuel Amara, ''Les derniers jours d'Aldo Moro'' (''The Last Days of Aldo Moro'')]
Interview of Steve Pieczenik put on-line
by Rue 89
Rue89 is a French news website started by former journalists from the newspaper ''Libération''. It was officially launched on 6 May 2007, on the day of the second round of the French presidential election. Its news editor is Pascal Riché, forme ...
[Hubert Artus]
Pourquoi le pouvoir italien a lâché Aldo Moro, exécuté en 1978
(Why the Italian Power let go of Aldo Moro, executed in 1978), ''Rue 89
Rue89 is a French news website started by former journalists from the newspaper ''Libération''. It was officially launched on 6 May 2007, on the day of the second round of the French presidential election. Its news editor is Pascal Riché, forme ...
'', 6 February 2008
Pieczenik maintained that the U.S. had had to "instrumentalize the Red Brigades". According to him, the decision to have Moro killed was taken during the fourth week of his detention, when Moro was thought to be revealing state secrets in his letters, namely, the existence of Gladio.
[ In another interview, Cossiga, the former interior minister, revealed that the Crisis Committee had also leaked a false statement attributed to the Red Brigades that Moro was already dead. This was intended to communicate to the kidnappers that further negotiations would be useless, since the government had written Moro off.]
Legacy
As a Christian democrat with social democratic
Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote soci ...
tendencies, Moro is widely considered one of the ideological fathers of modern Italian centre-left. During all his political life, he implemented numerous reforms which deeply changed Italian social life; along with his long-time friend and, at the same time, opponent, Amintore Fanfani
Amintore Fanfani (; 6 February 1908 – 20 November 1999) was an Italian politician and statesman, who served as 32nd prime minister of Italy for five separate terms. He was one of the best-known Italian politicians after the Second World War an ...
, he was the protagonist of a long-standing political phase, which brought the social conservative DC towards more leftist politics, through a cooperation with the Italian Socialist Party first, and the Italian Communist Party later.
Due to his reformist stances but also for his tragic death, Moro has often been compared to John F. Kennedy and Olof Palme
Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until h ...
.
According to media reports on 26 September 2012, the Holy See has received a file on beatification for Moro; this is the first step to become a saint in the Roman Catholic Church. In April 2015, it was reported that the process of beatification might be suspended or closed following the recent controversies. The postulator
A postulator is the person who guides a cause for beatification or canonization through the judicial processes required by the Roman Catholic Church. The qualifications, role and function of the postulator are spelled out in the ''Norms to be Obse ...
stated the process would continue when the discrepancies were cleared up. The halting of proceedings was due to Antonio Mennini
Antonio Mennini (born 2 September 1947) is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. having been appointed by Pope Benedict XVI, he served as the Nuncio to Great Britain from 18 December 2010 until 6 February 2017 when Pope Francis transfer ...
, the priest who heard his last confession, being allowed to provide a statement to a tribunal in regards to Moro's kidnapping and confession. Following this, the beatification process was resumed.
Electoral history
Cinematic adaptations
A number of films have portrayed the events of Moro's kidnapping and murder with varying degrees of fictionalization including the following:
*''Todo modo'' (1976), directed by Elio Petri, based on a novel by Leonardo Sciascia, actually made before Moro's kidnapping
*'' Il caso Moro'' (1986), directed by Giuseppe Ferrara and starring Gian Maria Volonté
Gian Maria Volonté (9 April 1933 – 6 December 1994) was an Italian actor, including roles in four Spaghetti Western films: Ramón Rojo in Sergio Leone's ''A Fistful of Dollars'' (1964) and El Indio in Leone's '' For a Few Dollars More'' ( ...
as Moro
*'' Year of the Gun'' (1991), directed by John Frankenheimer
*''Broken Dreams'' (''Sogni infranti'', 1995), a documentary directed by Marco Bellocchio
*''Five Moons Plaza'' (''Piazza Delle Cinque Lune'', 2003), directed by Renzo Martinelli and starring Donald Sutherland
*''Good Morning, Night
''Buongiorno, notte'' (''Good Morning, Night'') is an Italian film released in 2003 and directed by Marco Bellocchio. The title of the feature film, ''Good Morning, Night'', is taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson.
The plot is freely adapted from ...
'' (''Buongiorno, notte'', 2003), directed by Marco Bellocchio, portrays the kidnapping largely from the perspective of one of the kidnappers
*''Romanzo Criminale
''Romanzo criminale'' (; "Criminal Novel") is an Italian-language film released in 2005, directed by Michele Placido, a criminal drama, it was highly acclaimed and won 15 awards. It is based on Giancarlo De Cataldo's 2002 novel, which is in tur ...
'' (2005), directed by Michele Placido, portrays the authorities finding Moro's body
*''Les derniers jours d'Aldo Moro'' (''The Last Days of Aldo Moro'', 2006)
*'' Il Divo (2008): La Straordinaria vita di Giulio Andreotti'', directed by Paolo Sorrentino, highlighting the responsibility of Giulio Andreotti
*'' Piazza Fontana: The Italian Conspiracy'' (2012) (''Romanzo di una strage'') directed by Marco Tullio Giordana, Aldo Moro portrayed by actor Fabrizio Gifuni
Fabrizio Gifuni (born 16 July 1966) is an Italian stage, film and television actor. He won two Silver Ribbons and a David di Donatello Award.
Life and career
Born in Rome, the son of the politician Gaetano, Gifuni enrolled at the Silvio D'A ...
References
Further reading
*
* Hof, Tobias. ''The Moro Affair – Left-Wing Terrorism and Conspiracy in Italy in the Late 1970s''. ''Historical Social Research'', vol. 38 (2013), no. 1, pp. 129–14
(PDF)
* Wagner-Pacifici, Robin. ''The Moro morality play: Terrorism as social drama'' (University of Chicago Press, 1986).
* Pasquino, Gianfranco. ''Aldo Moro.'' In: Wilsford, David, ed. ''Political leaders of contemporary Western Europe: a biographical dictionary'' (Greenwood, 1995) pp. 339–45.
* Fasanella-Cereghino. ''Il puzzle Moro'' (Chiarelettere, 2018). In Italian.
Primary sources
by '' La Repubblica'', 16 March 1998.
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moro, Aldo
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