Giulio Andreotti

Giulio Andreotti was an Italian politician. Among the founders of the Christian Democracy Party, he was one of the most prominent personalities of public life in Italy, the so-called Prima Repubblica (First Republic), in the second half of the twentieth century. He had an uninterrupted presence at the head of politics from his election to the Italian Parliament in 1946 to his death in 2013. He had three periods as prime minister, spanning seven terms of office between 1972 and 1992. As of 2020, he is the second longest-serving post-war Prime Minister, after Silvio Berlusconi.

Andreotti served in a record number of ministerial positions, including Minister of the Interior (1954 and 1978), Minister of Finance (1955-58), Minister of Treasury (1958-59), Minister of Defence (1959-66 and 1974), Minister of Budget and Economic Planning (1974-76), and Minister of Foreign Affairs (1983-89) and was a Senator for life from 1991 until his death in 2013.

His term as head of the organizing committee for the 1960 Roma Olympics partly coincided with his tenure as Minister of Defence. In his capacity as Prime Minister of Italy he served a 12-month term as head of the Council of Europe.

Andreotti was later a defendant in two of the most sensational court cases in Italian legal history. He was acquitted of being involved with the Mafia in a case that took over 10 years to conclude. He was initially cleared, then found guilty and sentenced to 24 years in prison, and finally acquitted by the Italian Supreme Court over his possible complicity with the Cosa Nostra in the murder of journalist Mino Pecorell. His legacy in Italian politics is controversial and prone to conspiracy theories. The character of the politician Licio Lucchesi’s in Francis Ford Coppola’s film “The Godfather – Part 3” is generally perceived to be based on Andreotti. Andreotti was also a prolific author with his major works including A ogni morte di papa, I papi che ho conosciuto (1980), Onorevole, stia zitto (1987), Sotto il segno di Pio IX (2000) and Concerto a sei voci (2007).