(ANSA) - Rome, August 12 - The condition of ailing former Italian president Francesco Cossiga has not changed over the past 24 hours and he remains on a life support system, a medical bulletin from Rome's Gemelli Hospital said on Thursday. Cossiga, 82, was hospitalised on Monday suffering from severe respiratory problems and his condition worsened during the day. In a first medical bulletin issued on Tuesday, doctors said the life senator was in a critical condition but appeared to be responding to treatment. A second bulletin on Wednesday said he was in a critical but stable condition. There are reports that Cossiga, a devout Catholic was given extreme unction, also know as last rites, already on Monday. The Italian press, citing sources close to the former president, reported on Wednesday that Cossiga in recent weeks had apparently been suffering from depression and had "let himself go". Born in Sassari, Sardinia, in 1928, Cossiga was first elected to the House in 1958 with the Christian Democrat (DC) party.
In 1966 be became the youngest undersecretary in government and in 1976 the youngest interior minister. Cossiga was interior minister in 1978 when DC statesman and then-party chairman Aldo Moro was kidnapped and, 54 days later, murdered by the Red Brigades terrorist group. A year earlier he had ordered tanks to enter Bologna to quell protests there, angering the far left which in graffiti substituted the C in his last name with K and the two Ss with the SS symbol of the gestapo.
Cossiga was Italy's 63rd premier, from August 1979 to October 1980 and Speaker of the Senate from July 1983 to July 1985, when he was elected as the Italian Republic's 8th head of state, a post he held until April 1992. After serving as president Cossiga automatically became a life senator. In the latter years of his presidency, Cossiga was at the center of controversy for his outspoken views on Italian politics, statements which were dubbed by the press as 'picconate' ('pickaxe blows'). When it emerged that Cossiga has been part of the Gladio, a Stay-behind organization set up to counter a possible Soviet invasion, the Italian Communist Party (PCI) initially sought to have him impeached for treason but charges were never filed. Cossiga also sparked controversy for his support of Freemasonry following the scandal of the secret P2 masonic lodge, decreed by a parliamentary commission to be a subversive organization. As life senator Cossiga continued to freely express his opinions.
Cossiga has been in poor health in recent years.
Ten years ago he had a hip replacement and a tumor removed from his colon.