Giulio Andreotti, Italy’s ex-PM surrounded by intrigue

Former Italian prime minister Giulio Andreotti, who died on Monday at the age of 94, was a behind-the-scenes power broker of Italian post-war political life, accused of shadowy links with the mafia and the Vatican.

A government minister for over three decades, Andreotti was involved through all the upheavals that rocked Italy from the second world war until his retirement from mainstream political life in 1992, after which he stayed on as senator-for-life.

Born in Rome on January 14, 1919, he was elected to parliament in 1946 and became a junior minister – at the start of a lengthy career.

He was known for his love of political intrigue and close ties with the Vatican, beginning his career with the pro-Catholic Christian Democratic party before going on to be prime minister seven times and a minister 21 times.

With his stooped figure and bespectacled, hangdog expression, Andreotti was a controversial figure who was inevitably associated with a period of extremist political militancy that rocked Italy in the 1970s and 1980s.

At various points in his career he was nicknamed “The Untouchable”, “The Black Pope” and “The Divo” in an award-winning 2008 film on his life.

Andreotti was once convicted to 24 years in prison for ordering the murder of an investigative journalist in 1979 after a high-profile trial, but an appeals court cleared him in 2003 and he served no time in prison.