The conspiracy of the P2 Lodge in Italy

Prehistory of the P2 Lodge in Italy

At the time of the Cold War Italy was one of the countries that participated in the formation of NATO and the European Economic Community. Although the Christian Democrats (DC) ruled in Rome at the time, for decades after 1945, the Communists were then the most relevant political force in Europe, with about 30% of the votes. And despite the fact that the ‘Partito Comunista Italiano played a decisive role in the drafting of the 1948 republican constitution and clearly distanced itself from Soviet-style communism, it was demonized by right-wing political circles as an enemy of the state. The United States also did everything possible to prevent communist participation in the government, fearing a domino effect.

In 1950, Italy’s military intelligence service, in cooperation with the CIA, created the secret paramilitary unit Gladio, for the case of an eventual invasion by Warsaw Pact troops. The unit therefore attempted to curb the political influence of the communists by very questionable means. This is where the Masonic Lodge P2 came into play, which pursued the same objective by seeking to protect the privileges of the elite and the conservative character of the country. The personnel of both organizations coincided in many aspects. Until 1974, both forces even flirted secretly with a coup d’état, but then concentrated on weakening the democratic system from within.

In 1981, the list of P2 members was discovered.

The protagonists of this crisis could not be known until 1981, when by chance, Milan prosecutorial investigators discovered the biggest conspiracy in Italian history. Ministers, generals and judges had been involved. First they planned a coup d’état, but then they were content to undermine democracy. It all began with a criminal investigation into the collapse of Michele Sindona’s financial empire. The lawyer in charge of the liquidation was murdered and the Sicilian banker tried to fake his own kidnapping by leftist terrorists while hiding under the protection of the Mafia.

Licio Gelli’s name appeared in this investigation, so the Milanese judges in charge of the case ordered the search of his residence and of a textile company in Tuscany. Thus, on March 17, 1981, agents of the financial police discovered in a suitcase, among other explosive documents, a register on which 962 names were written. It was nothing less than the list of members of the legendary secret lodge Propaganda Due (P2), a hidden branch of the centuries-old Masonic lodge Grande Oriente d’Italia. Who were these people?

44 members of Parliament, 3 ministers, 5 secretaries of state, many civil servants, dozens of military generals and many other high-ranking Army dignitaries, the heads of the state secret services and of the fiscal police, numerous diplomats, judges and state prosecutors, influential journalists, publishers and businessmen, including Silvio Berlusconi.

The big cover-up

This explosive material was handed over to the examining magistrates Gherardo Colombo and Giuliano Turone, who passed it on to Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani. But because both Forlani’s secretary and the Minister of Justice and other cabinet colleagues were also members of the lodge, the head of government took no action. At the same time, the affair raised little interest in the media, and the Milanese judges were urged by their superiors to drop the investigation.

But on May 20, 1981, under pressure from Parliament, Forlani was forced to publish the list. Suddenly there was talk of a “scandal of scandals,” and Forlani had to resign on May 26 for his attempts at a cover-up.

At the end of June, Giovanni Spadolini became the first politician appointed as head of government who did not come from the powerful Christian Democracy. The left-liberal tried to break the influence of the so-called P2ists, but was quickly toppled by them. In August 1983 the first government of the socialist Bettino Craxi was installed and Forlani became the second man in the government, and so the brothers of the Lodge returned to important political positions.

So far the full extent of this huge conspiracy is not known. Since those involved held important positions, they managed to manipulate both the political and judicial investigations. Thus, the investigations succeeded in discrediting the list and the public prosecutor’s office in Rome withdrew the investigation of the Milanese, arguing that it was a conspiracy against the state and therefore a case of national importance. However, as soon as Rome took responsibility for the investigation, it petered out, leaving those responsible for so much evil for Italy unpunished.

 New attempt by the Italian Parliament

The Parliament entrusted the Christian Democrat Tina Anselmi with the political investigation of the affair. In July 1984, she presented a comprehensive final report in which she spoke of a “widespread organization” that functioned as a “State within the State” and “infiltrated civilian and military decision-making centers in a calculated and massive manner” with the aim of “undermining democracy from within”.

Under the “Legge Anselmi”, the P2 was officially dissolved in 1982. Its assets were to be confiscated and those involved punished. But none of this happened until 1985, when Elisabetta Cesqui, an examining magistrate in Rome, reopened the case. But all those who tried to clear up the matter encountered great obstacles put by those involved in the crime, prevented from working and received serious intimidations. The trial began in 1992 and ended two years later with a dubious absolution of all suspects of the main charges.

Former Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi said in a 2013 interview, “In Italy, P2 has never been given enough importance . .” . . Behind the curtains, manipulation of state institutions has continued. The fact that we have never completely eradicated this cancer is a cause for great concern.”

Possible P2 Involvement in Political Assassinations

In the mid-1970s there was an understanding between the Christian Democrats and Communists under Aldo Moro and Enrico Berlinguer, which was opposed to the interests of P2. When the Communists were to participate for the first time in a government of national solidarity, in March 1978, Moro was kidnapped by the extreme left-wing Red Brigades and assassinated after being held hostage for 55 days.

According to Colombo and Turone the P2 was involved in this: the crisis committee of the security forces, which should have worked for the release of the senior politician, was composed almost exclusively of lodge brothers who had no interest in his release, according to the verdict of the investigating judges.

This growing polarization came at a high price. Between 1969 and 1983, the extreme left-wing Red Brigades and neo-fascist extremists perpetrated a great many terrorist attacks in Italy. During the so-called years of lead, thousands of attacks took place in the country. They claimed about four hundred lives and injured more than a thousand people.

P2 members within the state security apparatus obstructed the investigation of the attacks. But there are also indications that agents of the secret services, the carabinieri and the financial police were also involved in the black terror. According to the Anselmi Commission, the brothers of the lodge were involved in the bombing of the Italicus Express between Rome and Munich in 1974, which claimed 12 lives. Recent investigations have also concluded that the head of the lodge was one of the instigators of the 1980 Bologna train station bombing, which killed 85 people.

Lodge P2 and the Italian Mafia

The brothers of the lodge also maintained good relations with organized crime, especially with the then powerful Sicilian Cosa Nostra. To fill important state posts with loyalists, they needed bribes. The mafia, in turn, was interested in laundering the black money obtained through drug trafficking.

Licio Gelli, the ‘Venerable Master’ of P2

In his younger years, the Tuscan had joined Mussolini’s Blackshirts and had served as a liaison officer for the Fascist regime’s contacts with the Nazis. In 1963, Gelli became a Freemason and quickly rose through the ranks of the organization. He recruited influential personalities as members by flattering, bribing or blackmailing them with explosive information. In 1975 he became “Worshipful Master” of P2.

Gelli was investigated for murder, terrorism and conspiracy. However, in the end he was only convicted of fraudulent bankruptcy, illegal acquisition of state secrets, defamation of judges and deception in the investigation following the Bologna bombing. He was never held accountable for his role as head of P2. Rumors circulated that Gelli was untouchable because he had documents whose publication would have embarrassed influential people. He spent the last years of his life with his second wife, nearly 40 years his junior, under loose house arrest at his villa near Arezzo, where he died in 2015 at the age of 96.

Most of those responsible go unpunished.

Most of the P2 members got off unscathed. They denied their affiliation with the lodge or described it as a harmless meeting place for businessmen. P2’s web of relationships continued to determine the fate of the Republic for decades.

“It would be a great mistake to dismiss P2 as a problematic episode of the past. They are all still there,” writes Sandra Bonsanti in the recently published book “Colpevoli” (Guilty). Like most experts, she believes that the list discovered forty years ago was incomplete. The journalist is even convinced that Gelli was not the boss, but one of the bosses of P2, and that Giulio Andreotti, the old political string-puller and head of government, pulled the strings covertly. Without a credible reconciliation with the past, no healthy democracy can emerge in Italy, writes Bonsanti. “If we had come to terms with our history, we would also have finally defeated the secret societies, the Mafia and the fascists. But our memory is short.”