Italian statesman and prime minister (19634, 19646, 19668, 19746, 1976), born in Maglie, SE Italy. He was professor of law at the University of Bari, and published several books on legal subjects. After World War 2 he was elected deputy to the Constituent Assembly and to the Legislature and held various cabinet posts. He took office as secretary of the Christian Democrats (1959) and, although leader of the centrist group within the Party, was sympathetic to the Socialists. He was Italian premier on five occasions, then became Leader of the Christian Democrats (1976), which afforded him powerful influence in Italian politics. Red Brigade left-wing terrorists kidnapped him in Rome in 1978 and subsequently murdered him.
Aldo Moro|
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| Prime Minister of Italy | |
|---|---|
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In office 4 December 1963 – 24 June 1968 23 November 1974 – 29 July 1976 |
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| Preceded by |
Giovanni Leone Mariano Rumor |
| Succeeded by |
Giovanni Leone Giulio Andreotti |
| Born |
September 23, 1916 Maglie, Italy |
| Died |
May 9, 1978 Rome, Italy |
| Political party | Christian Democracy |
Aldo Moro (September 23, 1916 – May 9, 1978) was an Italian politician and five times Prime Minister of Italy.
One of the most important leaders of Democrazia Cristiana (DC, English: Christian Democracy), Moro was considered an intellectual and an incredibly patient mediator, especially in the internal life of his party.
Early career
Moro was born in Maglie, in the province of Lecce (Puglia). The leader of PCI (Italian Communist Party) had proposed a solidarity between Communists and Christian Democrats in a moment of serious economical, social and political crisis in Italy, and Moro, then the president of DC, was one of those who had helped in finding a way to finally form a government of "national solidarity".
Kidnapping and death
Kidnapped, March 16, 1978
On March 16, 1978 Moro was kidnapped in Via Fani, a street in Rome, by a militant Communist group, known as the Red Brigades and led by Mario Moretti, after the murder of his 5 escort agents.
Moro was kidnapped on his way to a session of the house of representatives, where a discussion was supposed to take place regarding the vote of confidence to a new government led by Giulio Andreotti (DC), for the first time with the support of the Communist Party.
Negotiations
The Red Brigades (BR) proposed to exchange Moro's life for the freedom of several imprisoned terrorists.
Romano Prodi and other members of the faculty of the University of Bologna passed on a tip about a safe-house where the BR might have been holding Moro on April 2.
Aldo Moro's captivity letters
During this period, Moro wrote several letters to the principal leaders of DC and to Pope Paul VI (who later personally celebrated his solemn Funeral Mass). Most of the leaders of the Christian Democrats argued that the letters did not express truthfully Moro's intentions, having been written under coercion by his kidnappers, and refused to attempt any negotiation, in stark contrast with Moro's family's requests.
It has been conjectured that Moro used these letters to send cryptic messages to his family and colleagues.
Via Caetani, equidistant between DC and PCI
When the Red Brigades decided to execute Moro, they placed him in a car and told him to cover himself with a blanket, that they were going to transport him to another location. After Moro was covered, they emptied ten rounds into him, killing him: the killer was Mario Moretti. Moro's body was left in the trunk of a car in Via Caetani, a site equidistant between the Christian Democratic Party and the Communist Party headquarters, as a last symbolic challenge to the police, who were keeping the entire nation, and Rome in particular, under strict and severe surveillance. After the recovery of Moro's body, the Minister of the Interior Francesco Cossiga resigned, gaining trust from the Communist party, which would later make him the first President of the Republic to be elected at the first ballot.
Antonio Negri
On April 7, 1979, philosopher Antonio Negri was arrested and charged with a number of offenses including master-minding the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, leadership of the Red Brigades, and plotting the overthrow of the government.
In the same journal in 2003, Alexander Stille accused Negri of bearing moral but not legal responsibility for the crimes, citing Negri's words from one year later:
and
Conspiracy theories about Moro's death
Many other theories have been advanced about Moro's death. Some suggested that Moro's murder could have been orchestrated by the Italian Masonic lodge, Propaganda Due (also known as P2), and that the Red Brigades (BR), which was claimed to have had an inside "supergang" team, and been infiltrated by US intelligence (CIA). Another theory is that P2 members in the secret services sabotaged the investigation or intentionally failed to uncover the location where Moro was being held, in order to ensure his eventual death at the hands of the BR. If Gladio's influence on Italy's strategy of tension has been proven (see the Bologna massacre as one example), no concrete proof have been found of Gladio's interference with Moro's kidnapping. However, Moro's widow later recounted his meeting with US President Nixon's advisor, Henry Kissinger, and an unidentified American intelligence official, who warned him to pursue the strategy of bringing the Communist Party into his cabinet, telling him "You must abandon your policy of bringing all the political forces in your country into direct collaboration...or you will pay dearly for it."
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