Christian Democratic Party

A German gynecologist and conservative politician, Ms. von der Leyen had a mixed record as a minister in the Christian Democratic Party of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

That was in 1984, when he backed José Napoleón Duarte, the candidate of the Christian Democratic Party, which governed during the civil war’s bloodiest stretch.

He began his political career with the Christian Democratic Party in the 1980s and was a long-time member of parliament until 2019 when he resigned to become president of AIAD, a federation of companies working in the aerospace and defence sector.

The Red Brigades directly targeted mainstream symbols of the state - judges, prosecutors, the centrist Christian Democratic party - but were further radicalised by attacks by far-right groups, in which they believed the state was complicit.

We speak on Rome's Piazza Nicosia, where he opened fire in 1979 beside the Christian Democratic party headquarters, killing two policemen.