The funeral of former Italian President Francesco Cossiga will be held in Sassari, Sardinia, today. He will be buried in the cemetery of the village of Cheremule, inside the family chapel, where the remains of his parents and of his sister Tetta lie.
Prof. Cossiga died on Tuesday at the Policlinico Gemelli in Rome, where he had spent eight days in intensive care due to cardio-respiratory problems. In the last few days, he underwent a slight improvement which raised some hopes in his children, Annamaria, an archaeologist, and Giuseppe, an undersecretary at the Ministry of Defence, who had stayed close to their father during his mysterious confinement.
He had accustomed them to his misfortunes, to the hospital operations and to his tumour, illnesses to which he reacted in his own way, cheating and postponing death time and again.
Then came the night-time crisis, with the chief surgeon rushing to his bedside, the last CT scan and the bulletin which left no room for hope: “Drastic and sudden worsening of circulation”. It was 1.18 p.m. when the news was announced to an Italy mostly on holiday of the death of the great “pickman” (picconatore) who had chipped away at the First Republic until he brought it down.
The grief-stricken looks of his bodyguards, seen on television, contrasted with the bright eyes of the children who “had the misfortune of having an honest father” – the words Prof. Cossiga himself had used during a television interview some years ago.
Born in Sassari 82 years ago, Prof. Cossiga, who was a politician, a lawyer and university professor, and eighth President of the Republic from 1985 to 1992, has left four letters addressed to the heads of the Italian institutions (the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and the presidents of the Senate and of the Chamber of Deputies), in which he basically affirms his “religious faith in the Holy Catholic Church, civil faith in the Republic and… predilection for Sardinia”, his native island.
News of his death was announced in banner headlines in Italian newspapers yesterday, with near unanimous appraisals of this unusual Italian politician as a gentleman who was never touched by scandal, a political personality who had contributed to the building of the First Republic only to later demolish it by a series of “utterances” which eventually brought about the premature dissolution of Parliament and, to be consistent, his resignation as President and the coming of the Second Republic.
His career as a Christian Democratic politician was irrevocably marked by the kidnapping of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades in 1978. Prof. Cossiga resigned as Minister of Home Affairs following the discovery of the corpse of the president of the Christian Democratic Party. He said: “If my hair is white and I have patches on my skin it is because of this. Because while we allowed Moro to be killed, I realised this, because our suffering was in keeping with that of Moro”.
He was a lonely man who had many friends but not a political following, a solitary man whom one sought out for advice and clarifications. A powerful man without any tangible power. A man who could make you understand with a sly remark or with a smile the very futility of power.
Prof. Cossiga was elected almost unanimously as President of the Republic in 1985, succeeding the Socialist Sandro Pertini. Both had left great memories of themselves among the Italian people for their rectitude and ability to be irreverent sometimes, without losing the meaning of the state. Both were mavericks who navigated the political swamp; nonconformists, in love with their country whom they served with love and loyalty. “I am dead, now a little quiet please” was the heading of yesterday’s Il Giornale, the right-wing Italian daily.