This article is from the source 'nytimes' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/07/world/europe/giulio-andreotti-premier-of-italy-7-times-dies-at-94.html

The article has changed 7 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Giulio Andreotti, Premier of Italy 7 Times, Dies at 94 Giulio Andreotti, Premier of Italy 7 Times, Dies at 94
(about 9 hours later)
Giulio Andreotti, a seven-time prime minister of Italy with a résumé of soaring accomplishments and checkered failings that reads like a history of the republic, died on Monday, Italian news agencies said. He was 94 and lived in Rome. Giulio Andreotti, a seven-time prime minister of Italy with a résumé of signal accomplishments and checkered failings that reads like a history of the republic, died on Monday. He was 94 and lived in Rome.
At the close of World War II, Mr. Andreotti was a close aide of Alcide De Gasperi, one of the founding fathers of the Italian republic, who practically reinvented the Christian Democratic Party after it had been wiped out by Fascism. He stayed at the political center of gravity until 1992, when the Italian postwar political order collapsed. His death was announced by President Giorgio Napolitano.
That career epitomized many of the contradictions of postwar Italy. Until its collapse in 1992, Mr. Andreotti had been at the center of Italy’s postwar political order, emerging at the close of World War II as a close aide to Alcide De Gasperi, s a founding father of the Italian republic who had practically reinvented the Christian Democratic Party after it had been wiped out by Fascism.
With Mr. Andreotti holding one key position or another, Italy overcame wartime destruction and the threat of Stalinist totalitarianism; it coped with staggering social problems and labor discontent; it faced down terrorists; it struggled against organized crime. The party became Italy’s dominant one, furnishing all but three postwar prime ministers and governing — though at times barely so — through unruly coalitions or with the acquiescence of other parties.
But to secure power for the Christian Democrats, Mr. Andreotti helped build a system of cronyism that spawned vast corruption. The resulting investigations of the early 1990s ended the Christian Democratic Party and his own career. Mr. Andreotti’s long career epitomized many of the country’s contradictions. He held one key position or another — his portfolios included finance, treasury, defense and industry — as Italy overcame wartime destruction and the threat of Stalinist totalitarianism, coped with staggering social problems and labor discontent, faced down terrorists, and struggled against organized crime.
Mr. Andreotti helped shape the policies that ushered Italy into the company of the world’s richest democracies, the Group of Seven. But his ultimate inability to rein in the government profligacy that had helped anchor his party’s popularity caused Italy’s indebtedness to balloon. But to secure power for the Christian Democrats, Mr. Andreotti helped build a system of cronyism that led to vast corruption, government investigations and the end of both the Christian Democratic Party, in 1994, and his own career.
In his later years, despite his long record of public service, Mr. Andreotti’s reputation was sullied when he was stripped of his parliamentary immunity — he had been named a senator for life — and put on trial twice. Informers alleged that he had colluded with the Mafia in exchange for electoral support, and implicated him in the killing of a muckraking Italian journalist. A friend of popes and a daily attendant at mass, Mr. Andreotti was complex and enigmatic. He helped shape the policies that placed Italy among the world’s richest democracies, the Group of Seven. But his ultimate inability to rein in the government profligacy that had helped anchor his party’s popularity caused Italy’s indebtedness to balloon.
Mr. Andreotti vigorously denied the charges and was acquitted in both trials. He was known for a sardonic, sometimes caustic wit. “Power,” he liked to say, “wears out only those who don’t have it.”
In Mr. Andreotti’s lifetime, Italy left behind a poor, largely agricultural past to flourish as a modern society. Until its dissolution in January 1994, the Christian Democratic Party dominated, furnishing all but three postwar prime ministers. On another occasion, he said, “Apart from the Punic Wars, for which I was too young, I have been blamed for everything.”
Mr. Andreotti began as a staunch anti-Communist with strong ties to the Vatican. With a caustic wit uncommon among Rome politicians, he could be as sardonic as a Renaissance cardinal. “Power,” he liked to say, “wears out only those who don’t have it.” Former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher of Britain was wary of him. In her memoirs she wrote of him as a man possessing a “positive aversion to principle, even a conviction that a man of principle was doomed to be a figure of fun.”
He had a hand in rewriting the Vatican’s 1929 agreement with Mussolini. The updated version that Mr. Andreotti presented to Parliament in 1976 brought the accord in line with the secular lives led by most Italians: it abolished Roman Catholicism as the state religion, made religious instruction in the public schools optional and ended the church’s ban of Italy’s six-year-old divorce law. Others believed his character and deeds reflected his Catholicism. Gerardo Bianco, a longtime political associate, was quoted as saying, “Andreotti belongs to a certain Jesuitical, clerical tradition in which you accept that in a fallen world, you have to work with the material at hand.”
It was finally ratified in 1984 under Bettino Craxi, Italy’s first Socialist prime minister, whom Mr. Andreotti was serving as foreign minister. Probably his most traumatic episode as prime minister unfolded in March 1978, when the Red Brigades, a radical, Marxist-Leninist paramilitary group, kidnapped the former prime minister Aldo Moro in a street ambush and killed his five bodyguards. They demanded the release of their leaders, then on trial in Turin.
Mr. Andreotti was also prime minister in 1978 when Parliament, after years of arguments and compromises, passed a liberal abortion law, despite bitter Vatican opposition and only lax support from his own Christian Democrats. Three years later the electorate voted by better than 2 to 1 to uphold the law. Moro was one of Mr. Andreotti’s oldest friends and associates, but a sometime rival as well. In desperate letters to Mr. Andreotti and others, he pleaded with them to rescue him through a prisoner exchange. Mr. Andreotti, though clearly anguished, refused, having resolved not to negotiate with terrorists.
Giulio Andreotti was born Jan. 14, 1919, to a teacher who died when he was a year old. Growing up in a modest Roman neighborhood, he knew hardship but managed to work his way through the University of Rome and became a leader of the Catholic student movement. He earned a law degree but drifted into journalism. From 1942 to 1945 he presided over the Italian Catholic University Federation and edited its weekly. Weeks later, Moro’s body was found in Rome in a battered old car, two blocks from the headquarters of both the Christian Democrats and the Communists.
While doing research at the Vatican in 1942, he met De Gasperi, an anti-Fascist who had found refuge there as a librarian and hoped to resuscitate the Christian Democratic Party when Mussolini passed from the scene. De Gasperi led eight successive cabinets from 1945 to 1953, and Mr. Andreotti served him as cabinet under secretary of state, a post with considerable influence. Mr. Andreotti’s critics contended that his refusal to help Moro was politically motivated, an accusation he denied.
The fall of Communism opened new vistas when Mr. Andreotti spent six months in 1990 as president of the European Community. He spoke for the community at conferences to redefine the mission of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, promote relations with the new democracies of the former Soviet bloc, establish a European central bank, ponder the role of a reunified Germany as Europe’s most powerful player and keep world trade from becoming mired in protectionism. Mr. Andreotti’s detractors in Parliament had him investigated more than 20 times, whenever some scandal or malfeasance was rumored. As early as 1984, and perhaps even earlier, American diplomats in Sicily had reported to Washington that Mr. Andreotti’s Sicilian party faction was reputed to be closely tied to the Mafia. In Italy, he won full vindication each time.
In 1976 he became the first prime minister to find an accommodation with the Italian Communist Party, the country’s second-strongest electoral force. The party had missed its only real opportunity to usurp power in the tumultuous postwar era and was now claiming a role in government. Mr. Andreotti’s reputation was sullied again in his later years, when he was put on trial twice. Informers said that he had colluded with the Mafia in exchange for electoral support, and implicated him in the killing of a muckraking Italian journalist. He was acquitted in both trials.
The compromise he engineered ostensibly gave the Communist Party a role in policy making, while the party agreed not to trip up the government in votes of confidence. Ignoring the outcries of its rank and file, the party helped Mr. Andreotti pass painful austerity measures that kept the country from drowning in debt. Mr. Andreotti maintained strong ties with the Vatican, having had a hand in rewriting its 1929 agreement with Mussolini. In 1976, as prime minister, Mr. Andreotti presented to Parliament an updated version of the accord, bringing it into line with the secular lives led by most Italians: it abolished Roman Catholicism as the state religion, made religious instruction in the public schools optional and removed the church’s ban of Italy’s six-year-old divorce law.
In the end, it was the Communists who called off the engagement. The break came in December 1978 with Mr. Andreotti’s decision to take Italy into the European Monetary System. He wheedled concessions for a weaker lira out of Germany and France and put his proposal to a vote. The accord was finally ratified in 1984 under Bettino Craxi, Italy’s first Socialist prime minister, whom Mr. Andreotti was serving as foreign minister.
Mr. Andreotti was also prime minister when Parliament, after years of arguments and compromises, passed a liberal abortion law in 1978 despite Vatican opposition and only lax support from his own Christian Democrats. Three years later the electorate voted by better than 2 to 1 to uphold the law.
He could be shrewd and pragmatic. Though he started out as a staunch anti-Communist, Mr. Andreotti was the first prime minister to find an accommodation with the Italian Communist Party, the country’s second-strongest electoral force.
The compromise, engineered in 1976, ostensibly gave the Communist Party a role in policy making in return for a promise not to trip up the government in votes of confidence. Ignoring the outcries of its rank and file, the Communists helped Mr. Andreotti pass painful austerity measures that kept the country from drowning in debt.
In the end, it was the Communists who called off the engagement. The break came in December 1978, with Mr. Andreotti’s decision to take Italy into the European Monetary System. He wheedled concessions out of Germany and France for a weaker lira and put his proposal to a vote.
As foreseen, the Communists cast their first nays on a substantive issue. But the Socialists abstained rather than derail the government, and that left a comfortable margin for membership in the monetary system. Thus Mr. Andreotti won an impressive gamble.As foreseen, the Communists cast their first nays on a substantive issue. But the Socialists abstained rather than derail the government, and that left a comfortable margin for membership in the monetary system. Thus Mr. Andreotti won an impressive gamble.
The Communists caused his fall a month later on a vote of confidence.The Communists caused his fall a month later on a vote of confidence.
Probably his most traumatic episode in the prime minister’s office unfolded in March 1978 when the Red Brigades kidnapped the former prime minister Aldo Moro in a street ambush and killed his five bodyguards. They demanded the release of their leaders, then on trial in Turin. Giulio Andreotti was born on Jan. 14, 1919, to a teacher who died when he was a year old. After growing up in Rome in modest circumstances, he worked his way through the University of Rome and earned a law degree. From 1942 to 1945 he presided over the Italian Catholic University Federation, a student organization, and edited its weekly.
Moro was one of Mr. Andreotti’s oldest friends and associates, but a sometime rival as well. Plaintive letters from him to Mr. Andreotti and others pleaded that they rescue him in an exchange of prisoners. While doing research at the Vatican in 1942, he met De Gasperi, an anti-Fascist who had found refuge there as a librarian and hoped to resuscitate the Christian Democratic Party when Mussolini had passed from the scene. De Gasperi led eight successive cabinets from 1945 to 1953, and Mr. Andreotti served him as under secretary of state, a post with considerable influence.
An obviously anguished Mr. Andreotti made a point of conducting the affairs of state as he always had. Beyond a public appeal for Moro’s release, his government did not budge from its resolve not to deal with terrorists. In May 1978, Moro’s body was found in Rome in a battered old car, two blocks from the headquarters of both the Christian Democrats and the Communists. Mr. Andreotti is survived by his wife, Livia Danese, and four children. He was the author of numerous books, including “Lives: Encounters with History Makers,” published in 1989.
The failure of the Italian police and secret services to rescue Moro led to charges that Mr. Andreotti’s refusal to negotiate with the kidnappers was politically motivated, a charge he denied. After the fall of Communism, Mr. Andreotti spent six months in 1990 as president of the European Community working to improve relations with the new democracies of the former Soviet bloc, to establish a European central bank and to keep world trade from becoming mired in protectionism.
Mr. Andreotti’s detractors in Parliament had him investigated more than 20 times, whenever some scandal or malfeasance was rumored. As early as 1984, and perhaps even earlier, American diplomats based in Sicily had reported to Washington that Mr. Andreotti’s Sicilian party faction was reputed to be closely tied to the Mafia. In Italy, he won full vindication each time. He raised eyebrows in Paris and London by saying out loud what others had said only privately: that France and Britain should accept their diminished power and yield their permanent United Nations Security Council seats to the European Community and Japan.
In April 1993 a senate panel voted to strip Mr. Andreotti of his parliamentary immunity. In September 1995 he went on trial in Palermo, Sicily, accused of association with the Mafia; in April 1996 he went on trial in Perugia, accused of conspiring in the killing of an investigative journalist, Carmine Pecorelli, and the trial in Sicily was adjourned pending a verdict in Perugia. The events that tested Mr. Andreotti most in his later years began to unfold in late 1992, when charges resurfaced that he had for years been the Sicilian Mafia’s protector in Rome in exchange for political support. One said Mr. Andreotti had met with Salvatore (Toto) Riina, the “boss of all bosses,” in 1987 and that the men had exchanged a kiss of respect.
In September 1999 Mr. Andreotti was acquitted in Perugia, and the trial in Sicily resumed to hear testimony from some of the same informers who had testified there. Finally, in late October, the six-year trial ended in acquittal on the basis of insufficient evidence, not quite the exoneration Mr. Andreotti had hoped for. Other accusations centered on allegations that Mr. Andreotti had conspired in the killing of an investigative journalist, Carmine Pecorelli, in March 1979.
Mr. Andreotti repeatedly questioned the motives and reliability of the informers, 30 of whom testified in Palermo, suggesting that the Mafia was getting back at him for numerous steps he had taken both in Italy and abroad to fight organized crime. After Parliament stripped Mr. Andreotti of his immunity in 1993, he was tried in Palermo, Sicily, in 1995, on charges of associating with the Mafia, and in Perugia in 1996 on charges of conspiring in the killing of the journalist. (The Palermo trial was adjourned pending a verdict in Perugia.)
“As far as I know, none of the informers has ever said anything that they knew directly,” he told The New York Times in January 1993. ”They always say, ‘I heard about it.’ And the people they cite are all dead.” Mr. Andreotti was acquitted in Perugia in 1999. That same year, he was acquitted in Palermo on the basis of insufficient evidence, not quite the exoneration he had hoped for.
After the acquittal in Perugia, criticism of the prosecutors’ reliance on turncoat mobsters heightened. Even before the verdict, Parliament was studying laws to restrict the use of such witnesses. And after the verdict, Justice Minister Oliviero Diliberto commented: “They must be used in the most balanced manner. But without them, we wouldn’t know the first thing about the Mafia.” Mr. Andreotti repeatedly questioned the motives and reliability of the informers, suggesting that the Mafia was getting back at him for his efforts to fight organized crime.
“As far as I know, none of the informers has ever said anything that they knew directly,” he told The New York Times in January 1993. “They always say, ‘I heard about it.’ And the people they cite are all dead.”
Praised for his political durability, Mr. Andreotti was also labeled Beelzebub for his secretive dealings. Others called him the “Divo Giulio,” a play on his first name and the Latin “Divus Iulius” (or Divine Julius), used for Julius Caesar.
His political career inspired biographies and an unflattering movie that gave him a dismal place in Italian history. The film, “Il Divo,” by Paolo Sorrentino, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes film festival in 2008.
Asked for his reaction to the film, Mr. Andreotti told Italian media, “If you are a politician, I hear it’s better to be criticized than ignored.”
 

Gaia Pianigiani contributed reporting from Rome.