Andreotti, Giulio (b. 1919)

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ANDREOTTI, GIULIO (b. 1919)

Italian politician.

Giulio Andreotti, born in Rome on 14 January 1919, was an Italian politician who was among the founders of the Christian Democratic Party (DC). He graduated from law school in 1941 with a specialization in canon law, and Pope Pius XII (r. 1939–1958) soon appointed the twenty-two-year-old Andreotti president of the Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana (Italian Catholic University Federation). After the liberation of Rome (June 1944), he became the national delegate for Christian Democratic youth groups and in 1945 he participated in the National Council. He was elected to the Constituent Assembly the following year, and he ran successfully in every election to the Chamber of Deputies from 1948 to 1987. Twice elected to the European Parliament, he was appointed senator for life in 1991 by the president of the Italian Republic, Francesco Cossiga (b. 1928).

Andreotti's government career began in 1947 as undersecretary to the Office of the Prime Minister in Alcide De Gasperi's (1881–1954) fourth government, a post that he held through the eighth De Gasperi government (1953) and in the succeeding Giuseppe Pella (1902–1981) government. Andreotti was not only the premier's undersecretary but also the confidant of De Gasperi, who invited him to participate in highly sensitive meetings with Palmiro Togliatti (1893–1964) and Pietro Sandro Nenni (1891–1980) in the 1950s. He was never national secretary of the DC nor did he ever play a decisive role in the party with his majority wing, but more than anyone else he represented the quality and the continuity of Christian Democratic power in the state. From 1954 to 1968 he headed the ministries of interior, finance, treasury, defense, and industry. As leader of the DC deputies, he presided over the Chamber Committee on Foreign Affairs for the eighth legislature from December 1968 to February 1972. He became prime minister for the first time in 1972 (his was the shortest government of the Republic: it lasted only ten days) and on 26 June he formed his second coalition government (which lasted until June 1973) involving the DC, the Democratic Socialist Party (PSDI), and the Liberal Party (PLI), and with the outside support of the Republican Party (PRI). He returned to the Ministry of Defense in the Mariano Rumor (1915–1990) government of 1974, after which he headed the Office of Budget in the Aldo Moro (1916–1978) governments of 1974–1976. From July 1976 to 1978 he was premier of a one-party DC government that was formed thanks to the abstention of the Communist Party (PCI), the Socialist Party (PSI), the PSDI, the PRI, and the PLI during a period of emergencies created by economic crises and terrorism.

From 16 March 1978, the day that Moro was kidnapped, Andreotti led a new one-party government supported by the positive vote of even the Communists (although they had no share in the government), but not that of the PLI. After the resignation of his fifth government (31 March 1979) Andreotti did not hold any position in the executive branches of the governments that followed (Francesco Cossiga, 1979 and 1980; Arnaldo Forlani [b. 1925], 18 October 1980–26 May 1981; Giovanni Spadolini [1925–1994], 1981 and 1982; and Amintore Fanfani [1908–1999], 1 December 1982–29 April 1983). In Bettino Craxi's (1934–2000) government (4 August 1983) Andreotti became Minister of Foreign Affairs, a post that he also occupied in the second government of Craxi (1 August 1986–3 March 1987) and in those of Fanfani, Giovanni Goria (1943–1994), and Ciriaco DeMita( b.1928). An expert in the geopolitical balance of power, he was particularly interested in relations with the Arab world. At the end of the 1980s, it was presumed that Andreotti had formed a secret political pact with Craxi and Forlani—the leaders of the most important parties of the government coalition, PSI and DC. The pact (called CAF, from the initials of the three) was presumably aimed at turning Italian policy in their favor.

In 1991 Andreotti formed the last government led by the DC, which collapsed because of the "Tangentopolis" (Bribesville) investigations. Andreotti was not involved in this scandal, but in the mid-1990s he was indicted by two prosecutors' offices, one in Perugia and the other in Palermo. The former accused him of complicity in the assassination of the journalist Carmine "Mino" Pecorelli (1928–1979), who supposedly blackmailed Andreotti about the written documents left by Aldo Moro. The trial began 11 April 1996 and ended 24 September 1999 with Andreotti's acquittal "for not having committed the crime." The prosecutor of Palermo, Giancarlo Caselli, requested of the Senate and received from it on 13 May 1993 authorization to begin proceedings against Andreotti for collusion with the Mafia. According to the judges, Andreotti allegedly showed favoritism toward the Mafia in the handling of work contracts in Sicily, using as a mediator Salvo Lima, the Christian Democratic Eurodeputy murdered by the Mafia in Palermo on 12 March 1992. The trial was based on the testimony of a few informants, among them Balduccio Di Maggio, who told of Andreotti's famously kissing Sicilian Mafia boss Totò Riina (in the Mafia underworld the gesture indicates a rapport of familiarity and mutual esteem). In the course of the proceedings that began 26 September 1995, the prosecution asked for fifteen years' imprisonment. The first-stage trial ended 23 October 1999 with acquittal for lack of evidence, but the prosecutor's office in Palermo appealed.

In a second-stage trial, the Court of Appeals in Palermo acquitted Andreotti on 2 May 2003 with a decision divided into two parts: although it recognized his ties to the Mafia up to 1980, the admissibility of the relevant evidence had expired under the statute of limitations; for the charge of criminal collusion with the Mafia the acquittal was absolute. On 30 October 2003 the Court of Cassation definitively acquitted Andreotti of the charge of complicity in the murder of Pecorelli and on 15 October 2004 it rejected both the appeal by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Palermo challenging the acquittal and a petition presented by the defense to cancel the statute of limitations for some of the evidence; finally, upholding the ruling of the Court of Appeals, it acquitted Andreotti of the charge of collusion with the Mafia.

At more than eighty years of age Andreotti returned to politics with a new group splintered off from the People's Party (PPI); in the 2001 political elections it presented itself as centrist but received only 2.4 percent of the votes, thus failing to reach the electoral threshold.

The author of several books on recent Italian history, Andreotti still retains his brilliant personality, intelligence, and political acumen, the fruit of experiences that have made him a perennial protagonist in Italian political life.

See alsoCraxi, Bettino; Crime and Justice; Italy; Mafia.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Primary Sources

Andreotti, Giulio. A ogni morte di papa: I papi che ho conosciuto. Milan, 1980.

——. Diari, 1976–1979. Gli anni della solidariet. Milan, 1981.

——. The U.S.A. Up Close: From the Atlantic Pact to Bush. Translated by Peter C. Farrell. New York, 1992. Translation of Gli USA visti da vicino. Milan, 1989.