Former Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti Has Died

Giulio Andreotti died today at his home in Rome at the age of 94. He had been Italian premier seven times. He dominated the Italian post-war political scene as a member of the now defunct Democrazia Cristiana (Christian Democracy) party. From 1991, Andreotti had served as a senator for life. Andreotti was a divisive figure. He was investigated for his role in the murder of Italian journalist Mino Pecorelli, who alleged that Andreotti had links to the mafia and the 1979 kidnapping of former Italian Prime Minister Aldo Moro. Eventually, Andreotti was acquitted of the murder charge in 2003. The same year, a Palermo court acquitted him of ties to the mafia because the statute of limitations had expired. The court established that Andreotti had ties to the mafia until the 1980s that he had used to advance his political career. Italian director Paolo Sorrentino made a biographical drama about Andreotti in 2008 called ‘Il Divo’ covering his turbulent political career. Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher famously wrote in her memoirs that Andreotti “seemed to have a positive aversion to principle, even a conviction that a man of principle was doomed to be a figure of fun.”