Minister of the Interior during the "years of lead" (he took the place of Francesco Cossiga at the Viminale in the summer of 1978, after the kidnapping and murder of Aldo Moro, staying there until 1983), promoter together with Pio La Torre in 1982 of the law that introduced the crime of association for mafia-type crimes in the Italian criminal code, approved by Parliament ten days after the murder of Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, Prefect of Palermo, at the hands of the mafia. Virginio Rognoni, one of the protagonists of our republican history, died yesterday at the age of 98, in Pavia, a city to which his legal training was linked and in whose university he also taught. Besides being a deputy for seven terms for Christian Democracy, Rognoni was Minister of Justice in 1986-87 and of Defense from 1990 to 1992. He was also Vice-President of the High Council of the Judiciary from 2002 to 2006. A prominent protagonist of the First Republic, Rognoni also made his contribution in the second, joining first the Italian People’s Party led by Mino Martinazzoli, then the Democratic Party for which he was chosen in 2007 as one of the twelve sages to write its manifesto.