Word: forlani
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...budget votes (1964) to squabbles over abortion reform (1976) to Communist bids for power (1978). Even so, the most inventive Italian citizen would be hard pressed to dream up the bizarre scandal that rocked the country last week and toppled the four-party coalition government of Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani. Some of the leading, members of a secret Masonic group-which allegedly involved nearly 1,000 respected figures of the Italian Establishment, including members of Forlani's own Cabinet-were accused by the judiciary of such offenses as espionage, tax fraud, illegal currency dealings and even of planning...
Though the accusations were still unproved and could be the result of some monstrous hoax, the effects were devastating. They began with the abrupt resignation of Justice Minister Adolfo Sarti after he was said to be associated with the secret group, and concluded three days later with Forlani handing in his own resignation to President Sandro Pertini at the Quirinal Palace. It left Pertini with the task of either finding a potential Prime Minister capable of forming a new government-the 41st since 1946-or calling unwanted early elections...
Rumors of the scandal finally prompted Forlani himself to detonate the explosion. He released a card file listing the names of 963 members in the secret Masonic lodge designated "P2" (the P standing for "Propaganda"). The list had been found at the Arezzo villa of Licio Gelli, 62, a seemingly innocuous Tuscan-born businessman. Police carted out more than 1,000 letters, documents, diaries and ledgers in a dawn raid. Among the papers were confidential police intelligence reports from the 1960s that the government had ordered destroyed in 1974. Said an investigator: "The documents have a potential for blackmail...
...been illegal since 1947 for citizens to be members of any secret organization. What makes the P2 affair especially explosive, however, is the specter of the vast conspiracy raised in an investigating magistrates' report that also was divulged by Forlani. The scandal originally came to light during an investigation by Milan judicial officials into the affairs of Sicilian Financier Michele Sindona, an accused P2 member currently serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. for fraud in connection with the 1974 collapse of the Franklin National Bank. Investigating magistrates claimed to have found evidence that lodge members...
Ironically, the chief beneficiary of the whole Masonic affair may be the Communist Party. It was the only major political party untainted by alleged P2 memberships. No sooner had the Forlani government collapsed than Communist Party Leader Enrico Berlinguer was once more demanding a direct share in any new government...