ROME Giulio Andreotti, a seven-time prime minister who over six decades helped guide Italy out of the wreckage of World War II and into a period of economic prosperity, died Monday.
Parliament elected him to the presidency in the spring of 1992, hours after the killing of a top Mafia prosecutor, Giovanni Falcone, had smashed the chances of the favourite, GiulioAndreotti (now on trial on charges of links with the Mafia).
The judiciary is still vilified, both because Mr Berlusconi has been convicted of various crimes (evidence, it is said, of judicial bias) and because GiulioAndreotti, a veteran politician of the old order, has been acquitted of colluding with the Mafia (further alleged evidence of bias).