ROME, Italy: Giulio Andreotti, a Machiavellian seven-time Italian prime minister who dominated the political scene for decades, died yesterday at the age of 94.
Andreotti, a key figure in the once-dominant Christian Democratic party, died at his home in central Rome. He had suffered ill health in recent years and was hospitalised in August last year with heart trouble.
A private funeral will be held today in Andreotti’s local church for the staunchly pro-Catholic politician, who had close ties with the Vatican and was accused of shadowy links to the mafia and the Holy See.
Andreotti was “a leading protagonist for over 60 years of public life,” said Prime Minister Enrico Letta. Flags will be flown at half-staff at sporting events across Italy in honour of Andreotti, who helped bring the Olympics to Rome in 1960.
Rome’s Corso Vittorio Emanuele, which leads from the historic centre to the Vatican, was closed off to the public by police so that mourners visiting Andreotti’s home could pay their respects. “He was the engineer of this country’s reconstruction” after World War II, Paolo Cirino Pomicino, a former minister under Andreotti, said on news channel Sky TG 24. A controversial figure associated with a period of political violence which rocked Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, critics accused Andreotti of Machiavellian behaviour and nicknamed him “The Untouchable”. AFP
