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Political career
He studied law in Rome. During his formative political years, he was tightly connected to the Christian Democratic Leader Alcide De Gasperi. Andreotti has sat in Parliament without interruption since 1946, when he was elected to the Constituent Assembly. He was almost continuously re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies, until President Francesco Cossiga appointed him Senator for life in 1991.
He was the last Christian Democratic prime minister of Italy, serving from 1989 to 1992. His last term was marred by the revelation of the corruption which ultimately destroyed the party. On October 24, 1990, Giulio Andreotti acknowledged before the Chamber of Deputies the existence of Operazione Gladio, a North Atlantic Treaty Organization secret anti-communist structure. During the first stages of Tangentopoli he was left untouched but in April 1993 he was investigated for having mafia relations. In 1994 the party of which he was a predominant figure vanished from the political sphere.
Involvement with the Mafia
Andreotti was investigated for his role in the 1979 murder of Mino Pecorelli, a journalist who had published allegations that Andreotti had ties to the Mafia and to the kidnapping of Prime Minister of Italy Aldo Moro. A court acquitted him in 1999 after a case that lasted three years, but he was convicted on appeal in November 2002 and sentenced to twenty-four-years imprisonment. The eighty-three-year-old Andreotti was immediately released pending an appeal. On October 30, 2003, an appeals court over-turned the conviction and acquitted Andreotti of the original murder charge. That same year, the court of Palermo acquitted him of ties to the Mafia, but only on grounds of expiration of statutory terms. The court established that Andreotti had indeed had strong ties to the Mafia until 1980, and had used them to further his political career to such an extent as to be considered a component of the Mafia itself citation needed. Most of the evidence in both trials had come from the late Mafia informant Tommaso Buscetta.
Recent activities
As of 2005, he regularly writes articles for Corriere della Sera. He also recorded a TV spot for 3 mobile company, which began airing in November 2005.
After the April 2006 general election, Andreotti, aged 87, accepted to be the candidate for the Presidency of the Senate for Silvio Berlusconi's House of Freedoms alliance that was still governing at the time. He was opposed by The Union's Franco Marini and lost to him 156 votes to 165.
On January 21, 2008, he abstained from a vote in the Senate concerning Minister Massimo D'Alema's report on foreign politics. This choice, together with the abstentions of another life senator, Sergio Pininfarina, and of two communist senators, caused the government to lose the vote: as a consequence, Prime Minister Romano Prodi resigned. On previous occasions, Andreotti had always supported Prodi's government with his vote. Given his close ties to the high ranks of the Catholic Church, the abstention of Andreotti was read by many as a sort of warning delivered by the Conferenza Episcopale Italiana to the government which at that time was pushing ahead a proposal for legal recognition of unmarried couples, including same-sex couples. (See Recognition of gay unions in Italy.)
Quotes
- In response to opposition politician Giancarlo Pajetta, who had claimed that "power wears out", Andreotti responded "Power wears out those who don't have it". The sentence became proverbial and is widely recognized in Italy.
- On Gladio: "Gladio had been necessary during the days of the Cold War but, in view of the collapse of the East Block, Italy would suggest to NATO that the organization was no longer necessary."
- "You sin in thinking bad about people—but, often, you guess right."
- "Never over-dramatise things, everything can be fixed; keep a certain detachment from everything; the important things in life are very few"
Popular culture
- In Italy, he is often nicknamed Belzebù (Beelzebub) by his adversaries.
- The fictional character Don Licio Lucchesi from The Godfather Part III movie, a high-rank Italian politician closely bound to the mafia, was modeled on Andreotti. Ironically, before Lucchesi was killed, his killer whispered in to his ear "Power wears out those who don't have it".
- A joke about Andreotti had him receiving a phone call from a fellow party member, who pleaded with him to attend judge Giovanni Falcone's funeral. His friend supposedly begged: "The State must give an answer to the Mafia, and you are one of the top authorities in it!". To which Andreotti answered puzzled, "Which one do you mean?"
- The Italian satirical magazine Cuore referred to Andreotti as Giulio "Lavazza", where Lavazza is a leading Italian brand of coffee. This was a hint of an alleged involvement of Andreotti in the assassination of banker and felon Michele Sindona, killed in jail with a poisoned espresso.
External links
- (French) "Les procès Andreotti en Italie" ("The Andreotti trials in Italy") by Philippe Foro, published by University of Toulouse II, Groupe de recherche sur l'histoire immédiate (Study group on contemporary history)
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Amintore Fanfani |
Italian Minister of the Interior 1954 |
Succeeded by Mario Scelba |
| Preceded by Antonio Segni |
Italian Minister of Defense 1959–1966 |
Succeeded by Roberto Tremelloni |
| Preceded by Emilio Colombo |
President of the Council of Ministers of Italy 1972–1973 |
Succeeded by Mariano Rumor |
| Preceded by Mario Tanassi |
Italian Minister of Defense 1974 |
Succeeded by Arnaldo Forlani |
| Preceded by Aldo Moro |
President of the Council of Ministers of Italy 1976–1979 |
Succeeded by Francesco Cossiga |
| Preceded by Francesco Cossiga |
Italian Minister of the Interior 1978 |
Succeeded by Virginio Rognoni |
| Preceded by Emilio Colombo |
Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs 1983–1989 |
Succeeded by Gianni De Michelis |
| Preceded by Ciriaco De Mita |
President of the Council of Ministers of Italy 1989–1992 |
Succeeded by Giuliano Amato |
