Giulio Andreotti
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Giulio Andreotti (born in Rome, 14 January 1919) is an Italian political figure, among the most powerful in post-war Italy. He has been repeatedly accused of having Mafia contacts, and was eventually convicted, even though he avoided formal conviction because of statutory terms. He is often considered to have a strong sense of irony. He served as the prime minister of Italy seven times; his terms were:
- 17 February 1972 - 26 February 1972
- 26 June 1972 - 12 June 1973
- 29 July 1976 - 16 January 1978
- 11 March 1978 - 31 January 1979
- 20 March 1979 - 31 March 1979
- 22 July 1989 - 29 March 1991
- 12 April 1991 - 24 April 1992
He also served as the foreign minister of Italy between 1983 and 1989. Andreotti has sat in Parliament without interruption since 1946, when he was elected to the Constituent Assembly. He was always re-elected to the Chamber of Deputies, until President Francesco Cossiga appointed him Senator for life. Since 1991, he is a Life Time Senator in Italy's Senate.
In his first political experience he was tightly connected to the Christian Democrat Leader Alcide De Gasperi and served as a Deputy Minister in Italy's Post War governments.
He was the last Christian Democratic prime minister of Italy from 1989 to 1992, and his last tenure was marred by the revelation of the corruption which ultimately destroyed the party.
In November 2002 Andreotti was convicted of ordering the 1979 murder of Mino Pecorelli, a journalist who had published allegations that Andreotti had ties to the Mafia. He was sentenced to twenty-four-years imprisonment but the eighty-three-year-old Andreotti was immediately released pending an appeal. On October 30, 2003, an appeal court over-turned the conviction and acquitted Andreotti of the original murder charge. That same year a court acquitted him of ties to the Mafia, but only on grounds of expiration of statutory terms. The court established that Andreotti had indeed had strong ties to the Mafia, and had used them to further his political career, to such an extent of being considered a component of the Mafia. Most of the evidence in both trials had come from the late Mafia informant Tommaso Buscetta.
| Preceded by: Emilio Colombo | Prime Minister of Italy 1972–1973 | Succeeded by: Mariano Rumor |
| Preceded by: Aldo Moro | Prime Minister of Italy 1976–1979 | Succeeded by: Francesco Cossiga |
| Preceded by: Ciriaco De Mita | Prime Minister of Italy 1989–1992 | Succeeded by: Giuliano Amato Quotes
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