Towering figure in post-war Italian politics gave little away

So this is "Beelzebub", the very devil himself. It was a fresh autumn night in 1997. I had gone around to Palazzo Giustiniani, half way between the Pantheon and Piazza Navona in the heart of tourist Rome, to interview life senator Giulio Andreotti, the seven-times Italian prime minister who died last Monday at the age of 94.

Andreotti was nothing if not a towering figure in the Italian post-war political landscape. Not only had he dominated the affairs of his own party but the list of scandals in which he had “allegedly” been involved was as long as your arm .

They included the killings of fellow Christian Democrat Aldo Moro, journalist Mimo Pecorelli, liquidator Giorgio Ambrosoli and Palermo prefect Gen Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, not to mention his relationships with controversial figures such as P2 founder Licio Gelli, Sicilian banker Michele Sindona and Sicilian MEP, Salvo Lima.

In a sense, he was the “bunga, bunga” man of the day, even if nothing could have been further from him than the alleged late-night antics of media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi.

Curious impression
He opened the door to me himself since he had no flunkies or secretaries in attendance.

What is more, he cut a curious impression, dressed as he was in two less-than-smart cardigans. He looked for all the world like a not-at-all absent- minded professor. By this stage in his life, Andreotti’s 50-year active political life was over.

As he put it to me, he spent his time reading books, editing the religious magazine 30 Giorni and looking at the documents before his next appearance in court.

Those were the days of "the trial of the century" in which Andreotti stood accused of systematic collusion with Cosa Nostra (then the most powerful Mafia) in Sicily.

Andreotti attended nearly all the sittings of that nine-year trial (1995-2004). It concluded with him being found guilty of Mafia collusion – but only until 1980, an offence prescribed by the statute of limitations.

That evening in his office, Andreotti seemed a million miles from the wheeler-dealer, the true descendant of Macchiavelli that I (and the Italian public) had long imagined. He was curious, cheerful and surprisingly talkative.

Had he never had any doubts, I wondered, about Salvo Lima, the MEP and his right- hand man in Sicily who was taken out by Cosa Nostra in 1992, allegedly for failing to stick to various “agreements”?

Never heard a bad word about him, he smiled seraphically, even though the rest of Italy had only ever heard "bad" words about a man later said to be a full-time Mafioso.

As an experienced politician, I was curious to hear what he made of fellow Irish politicians. However, names such as Haughey, Reynolds or Bruton meant nothing to him.

The only Irish politician he could recall was Garret Fitzgerald (probably because the two could communicate in French).

Likeable person
"In meetings you could see that he was very well informed on European affairs and he always did a good job in looking after Ireland's interests . . . On top of that, he was a very likeable person and that human touch can be very useful at EU meetings."

I asked him, too, about the new elephant in the corner of Italian politics, namely Silvio Berlusconi. At this point, he reverted to Beelzebub mode.

“I am not quite sure about him,” he said. “For the time being, I suspend my judgment.”

All of this cosy portrait makes the remarkable Andreotti sound like an inoffensive, grandfather figure. Yet the man who, as he put it that night, “saw Harry Truman out of the White House and Bill Clinton in” was no harmless octogenarian.

When a minute’s silence in his memory was held before Serie A football games this week, the response was one of jeers and whistles.

When that same minute’s silence was held at a sitting of the Lombardy Regional Council on Monday, one councillor stood up and walked out in protest.

That councillor was Umberto Ambrosoli, son of lawyer Giorgio Ambrosoli, the liquidator killed by a Chicago hit man in Milan in 1979. That hit man had been hired by Michele Sindona, a long-time ally of Andreotti.

Gunned down
Another person little inclined to honour Andreotti this week was Nando Dalla Chiesa, son of General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa, the prefect gunned down by Cosa Nostra in central Palermo in September 1982, allegedly by way of a favour to Andreotti.

Both Dalla Chiesa jnr and Ambrosoli jnr have good reason to believe that Andreotti never really revealed just how much he knew about their fathers’ assassinations.

Perhaps some secrets really do go with you to the grave.