With Giulio Andreotti, who died at the age of 94, the most contradictory and ambiguous political figure of the Italian post-war period disappeared. Many said that more than anyone else he represented the Christian Democrats. It is an incomplete and largely inexact judgment. And in any case unflattering, not for Andreotti's story, but for that of the DC. His compass in politics was above all power: what, to use one of his expressions, "wears out those who don't have it". At the beginning we find him as a young undersecretary of Alcide De Gasperi. Formidable what Indro Montanelli wrote in this regard, recalling how the Trentino statesman had his young collaborator accompany him to mass: "The first spoke with God, the second with the priests".
As for Andreotti's cursus honorum, it is quick to recall the positions not held. Mainly two: the secretariat of the DC (parties are often wise) and the presidency of the Republic (he tried at the end of his career, but only succeeded in blocking Forlani's way, favoring the Scalfaro solution despite him). Even the latest events in his political life underline an absolute and cynical ruthlessness. Like when, as a life senator, he allowed Berlusconi to nominate him for the presidency of the Senate, with the aim of blocking the path (unsuccessfully) to Franco Marini.
We talked about a contradictory character. Andreotti represented the Christian Democrat right for many years. In 1962 at the DC Congress in Naples, together with Scelba and Scalfaro, he headed the Spring movement which opposed the birth of the centre-left wanted by Moro and Fanfani. A few years earlier he had not hesitated, in Arcinazzo, to embrace Marshal Graziani, a fascist from Salò and famous for anything but orthodox behavior (in compliance with international conventions) in the wars in Africa. Naturally, his position within the DC did not prevent him from almost always being a minister in centre-left governments.
Many years later it will be Andreotti's turn to lead the government of no confidence, the one that, for the first time, was going ahead thanks to the benevolent understanding of the PCI. Moro wanted to bring all of the united DC (and he succeeded) to that difficult appointment, even at the cost of entrusting the leadership of the government to a traditional exponent of the internal right. Andreotti found himself in Palazzo Chigi in the days of the kidnapping and assassination of Aldo Moro by the Red Brigades. The government, with the decisive support of the PCI, held the line of firmness (Craxi's socialists did not hide their opposition to that choice).
From then on, relations between Andreotti and Craxi were marked by mutual suspicions and very strong distrust. Craxi called him Beelzebub. He, Andreotti, reciprocated with icy irony. Like, when as foreign minister of the government presided over by the socialist leader, to underline how crowded the group of "guests" of the president was on a trip to Beijing, he commented: "I'm going to China with Craxi and his loved ones". Then in the years of crisis and decadence of the centre-left, Giulio and Bettino found themselves together in the Caf. But it was the beginning of the end and Tangentopoli was already on the horizon.
Andreotti has often been referred to as a sort of shadow man of all the Italian mysteries: from Sindona to Calvi, from Pecorelli to Moro. Probably not all the suspects had incontrovertible foundations. However, to use once again a bad joke of ours, "thinking badly makes you a sin, but often you get it right". And here we come to the Mafia trial which, in the aftermath of Tangentopoli, Andreotti had to face in Palermo. He came out half acquitted and half prescribed. In other words: no penalty, but suspicions not dispelled.
After all, Lima, who was the target of a mafia assassination, was the highest representative of the Andreottians on the island. It's natural to think who his killers turned to. To the DC exponent's credit, it must be said that he did not escape the trial, in which he defended himself without delaying attempts. And that is no small thing, given what has happened in other trials, in which the politician involved prefers to seek (even with legislative interventions) an easy prescription rather than a decisive acquittal.
Finally foreign policy. Many argue that Andreotti was the American man for years. It's only partially true. Probably until the Arab-Israeli wars. In fact, the Americans have not always welcomed the ambiguous relations of Italian foreign policy with the Arab world, including Gaddafi. Relations that have probably protected the country from terrorist reprisals, but which certainly have not strengthened Italy's Western and Atlantic credibility in Washington.
