Aldo Moro, 40 years since the kidnapping that changed Italy

On Friday 16 March at 9:00 AM exactly 40 years will have passed since the terrorist raid in which Aldo Moro was kidnapped and that has radically changed the Italian political history.

The Aldo Moro Case, that is the kidnapping and the murder occurred after 55 days of imprisonment of the Christian Democratic Party President made in 1978 by the Red Brigades terrorist group, is since then an open wound in the political situation of the Italian Peninsula.

That day, forty years ago, in Via Fani in Rome, a Red Brigades commando unit opened fire killing the five escort members of the President: the Carabinieri Marshal Oreste Leonardi, the corporal Domenico Ricci, the sergeant Francesco Zizzi, the policeman Raffaele Jozzino and the policeman Giuliano Rivera. In less than a matter of minutes of shots, the Red Brigades captured the President Moro and disappeared without trace.

On 9 May, at the end of the imprisonment, when terrorists belonging to the Red Brigades conducted something that they defined as the “the process of the people”, Aldo Moro was killed and his body was left in a red Renault 4 and found the same day at Via Caetani, in the middle of Rome.

The case of Moro is full of mysteries and had important effects on different planes and especially on the political one. In particular, the terrorist action entered to the “historical compromise”, putting an end to it, a political approach strategy between the Italian Communist Party and the Italian Democracy, or, of the ICP to the state institution.

 

Aldo Moro was the president of the Council of centre-left governments and with his political activity, he supported the approach of ICP which abstained at the Parliament in 1976 and 1977, supporting in this way the Government of Andreotti, and he took part at the experience of governments of national solidarity in 1978 and 1979. The murder of Moro heavily contributed to the breakdown of this political season.

 

The special episode on Rai Tre: on Friday 16 March at 9 PM, there will be aired “The Condemned – Report of a kidnapping”. After 40 years from the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, Ezio Mauro will talk about the fifty-five days of imprisonment of the politician, by a survey without studio, carried out right on the places where everything happened.

The features on Rai News: two declarations by direct and indirect people who played an important role in the kidnapping of Moro and a feature 40 years later will go on air. On Tuesday 13 March at 9:30 PM Rai all news channel will offer in a feature programme, hosted by Angela Caponnetto, the interview by Ezio Mauro and Giovanni Moro, son of the President of Christian Democracy kidnapped by the Red Brigades on the 16 March in 1978 and killed 55 days later. On Wednesday 14 March at 9:30 PM, it will be the turn of the interview, another one by Ezio Mauro, to the former member of the Red Brigades, Adriana Faranda, who was the ‘postwoman’ of the Brigades during the days of the kidnapping. A special item hosted by Gianluca Semprini will clarify the case 40 years later, on Friday 16 March at 9 AM – the right time of the shooting of the escort and the kidnapping. On Wednesday there will also be space to the anniversary on Telegram, the programme hosted by the Director Antonio Di Bella, on air at 6 PM

The La7 special: On Tuesday 13 March at 9:20 PM, “Atlantide. The case of Aldo Moro”: the first part of the programme will be presented by Andrea Purgatori and dedicated to the murder of Moro. The second part will be on television on Wednesday 14 March.

 

Special edition of La Repubblica: after 40 years since the Aldo Moro Case, a journey from paper, to radio, to TV.