Arnaldo Forlani

In the general election, which took place on 7 May 1972, the DC, led by Forlani, remained stable with around 38% of the votes, as it happened to the Communist Party which obtained the same 27% of 1968.[7] The Socialist Party continued in its decline, reducing to less than 10%. The most important growth was that of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement, which nearly doubled its votes from 4.5 to c. 9%, after that its leader Giorgio Almirante launched the formula of the "National Right", proposing his party as the sole group of the Italian right side.

Incumbent Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, supported by secretary Forlani, tried to continue his centrist strategy, but his attempt only lasted a year. Former Premier Mariano Rumor so returned at the head of the government with his traditional centre-left alliance between Christian Democrats, Socialist, Democratic Socialist and Republicans. At the same time, during the 1973 National Congress, Forlani, who now opposed an alliance with the PSI, was not confirmed Secretary of the party, and his former mentor, Amintore Fanfani, became DC secretary once again.

Forlani with Ciriaco De Mita and Benigno Zaccagnini in 1970

After the referendum, former Premier Aldo Moro persuaded the Socialists to accept a minority government composed only by the Christian Democrats and the Republicans. Forlani was appointed Minister of Defence by Moro.

However, new problem arose from the regional elections of 1975, which marked a great success of the left, which consequently called for new national elections.

In March 1976 Forlani run to the secretariat of the party, opposing Benigno Zaccagnini, incumbent secretary and member of the DC left-wing, who supported Moro's policy of accommodation with the Communists of Enrico Berlinguer, known as Historic Compromise. Forlani was supported by Andreotti, Fanfani, Flaminio Piccoli and Antonio Bisaglia, but he lost the congressional election and Zaccagnini remained Christian Democratic secretary.

When the Republicans left Moro's cabinet in 1976, no possibilities of a new government remained, and an early vote was called. After the election, which saw a great success of the Communist Party, Andreotti became the new Prime Minister and Forlani was appointed as Minister of Foreign Affairs.[8]

The reasons of this important nomination were, firstly, the necessity to recover a climate of unity in the party after the congressional divisions and, secondly, the opportunity, in a world still marked by the Cold War, to allocate foreign policy to a clearly anti-communist personality, as Forlani was, able to calm the European and American partners.[9] During his ministry, Forlani strongly supported the European integration process, and the adhesion of Portugal to the European Economic Community.[10]

During his premiership, Forlani had to face also the Irpinia earthquake, a strong shock, that was centered on the village of Conza in Campania, and left at least 2,483 people dead, at least 7,700 injured, and left 250,000 homeless.[12][13]

Forlani's government spent 59 trillion lire on reconstruction, while other nations sent contributions. West Germany contributed 32 million United States dollars (USD) and the United States US$70 million.[14]

However, in the early nineties a major corruption scandal emerged. Of the billions of lire that were predestined for aid to the victims and rebuilding, the largest part disappeared from the earthquake reconstruction funds in the 1980s. Of the $40 billion spent on earthquake reconstruction, an estimated $20 billion went to create an entirely new social class of millionaires in the region, $6.4 billion went to the Camorra, whereas another $4 billion went to politicians in bribes. Only the remaining $9.6 billion a quarter of the total amount, was actually spent on people's needs.[15] Moreover, Mafia entered the construction industry after the quake.[16]

During his presidency, the list of who belonged to the secret lodge P2 was published. The P2 was a Masonic lodge founded in 1945 that, by the time its Masonic charter was withdrawn in 1976, had transformed into a clandestine, pseudo-Masonic, ultraright[17][18][19] organization operating in contravention of Article 18 of the Constitution of Italy that banned secret associations. In its latter period, during which the lodge was headed by Licio Gelli, P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the Vatican-affiliated Banco Ambrosiano, the murders of journalist Mino Pecorelli and banker Roberto Calvi, and corruption cases within the nationwide bribe scandal Tangentopoli. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of Michele Sindona's financial empire.[20]

P2 was sometimes referred to as a "state within a state"[21] or a "shadow government".[22] The lodge had among its members prominent journalists, members of parliament, industrialists, and military leaders—including Silvio Berlusconi, who later became Prime Minister of Italy; the Savoy pretender to the Italian throne Victor Emmanuel;[23] and the heads of all three Italian intelligence services (at the time SISDE, SISMI and CESIS).

When searching Licio Gelli's villa in 1982, the police found a document called the "Plan for Democratic Rebirth", which called for a consolidation of the media, suppression of trade unions, and the rewriting of the Italian Constitution.[24] However, the lateness with which they were published gained Forlani heavy criticism, in particular from the Communist Party. He was therefore compelled to resign from the position, staying away from spotlight of politics for a certain period. With his resignation and the appointment of Republican leader Giovanni Spadolini, the unbroken line since 1945 of Christian Democratic Prime Ministers came to an end.[25]

Arnaldo Forlani in 1992.

On 17 February 1992, judge Antonio Di Pietro had Mario Chiesa, a member of the PSI, arrested for accepting a bribe from a Milan cleaning firm. The Italian Socialist Party distanced themselves from Chiesa. Craxi called Mario Chiesa mariuolo, or "villain", a "wild splinter" of the otherwise clean PSI. Upset over this treatment by his former colleagues, Chiesa began to give information about corruption implicating his colleagues. This marked the beginning of the Mani pulite investigation; news of political corruption began spreading in the press.

In 1992 general election, the Christian Democracy, led by Forlani, lost many votes, but its coalition managed to keep a small majority. However the largest opposition party, the PCI, split after the fall of the Soviet Union and there was no opposition leadership. Many votes went to Lega Nord, a party that was not inclined to alliances at the time.

In the presidential election of the same year, the Christian Democracy proposed Forlani as his candidate to the presidency of the Republic. However, during the 5th and 6th ballots, held on 16 May 1992, Forlani missed the election of 39 and 29 votes respectively. Following these defeats, Forlani withdrew his candidacy as President of the Republic.

The defeat in the presidential election, shortly after the dramatic general election, marked the conclusion of Forlani's political life, who, after other defeats in regional and administrative elections and involvement in Mani pulite scandal, in which he was charged of having received illegal funds, resigned as party Secretary in October 1992 and subsequently retired from politics.[27]

His former spokesman, Pier Ferdinando Casini, is considered Forlani's politics direct heir.