Editing Propaganda Due (section)

{{short description|Italian masonic lodge banned in 1982}}
{{expand Italian|date=March 2014}}
{{use dmy dates|date=December 2024}}
{{Infobox political party
| name             = Propaganda 2 (P2)
| native_name      = Propaganda Due
| logo             = 
| colorcode        = 
| leader           = [[Licio Gelli]]
| foundation       = {{Start date and age|1877}} (as Propaganda Massonica)<br>{{Start date and age|1966}} (as Propaganda Due)
| ideology         = [[Neo-fascism]]<ref>{{Cite book |last=Finchelstein |first=Federico |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PND0EAAAQBAJ&dq=%22neofascist%22+%22videla%22&pg=PA119 |title=The Wannabe Fascists: A Guide to Understanding the Greatest Threat to Democracy |date=2024-05-14 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-39250-2 |language=en}}</ref><br>[[Anti-communism]]
| headquarters     = 
| international    = {{ublist
|{{flagicon image|Flag_of_the_U.S._Central_Intelligence_Agency.svg}} [[CIA]] (alleged)
|{{flagdeco|NATO}} [[Operation Gladio]] (alleged)}}
| registered       = 
| country          = Italy
| abbreviation     = 
| dissolved        = {{End date and age|1925}} (Propaganda Massonica banned)<br>{{End date and age|1976}} (officially by Grand Orient of Italy)<br>{{End date and age|1982|01|25}} (by Law)
| colours          = 
| split            = 
| predecessor      = [[Propaganda Massonica]] (1877–1925)
| membership       = ~962
| membership_year  = 
| position         = [[Far-right]]
| religion         = [[Catholicism]]
| national         = {{ublist
|[[Banda della Magliana]]
|[[Cosa Nostra]] (alleged)
}}
| caption          = 
}}
{{Freemasonry}}
{{Anti-communism|Organisations}}
{{lang|it|italic=no|'''Propaganda Due'''}} ({{IPA|it|propaˈɡanda ˈduːe}}; '''P2''') was a [[Masonic lodge]], founded in 1877, within the tradition of [[Continental Freemasonry]] and under the authority of [[Grand Orient of Italy]]. Its Masonic [[charter]] was withdrawn in 1976, and it was transformed by Worshipful Master [[Licio Gelli]] into an international, illegal, clandestine, [[anti-communist]], [[anti-Soviet]], [[anti-Marxist]], and [[Radical right (Europe)|radical right]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Herman |first=Edward |title=Manufacturing consent the political economy of the mass media |publisher=Pantheon Books |location=New York |year=2002 |page=152 |isbn=0307801624 |quote=... the extreme right-wing organization Propaganda Due (P-2), ...}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Naylor |first=R. T. |title=Hot money and the politics of debt |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |location=Montreal Que |year=2004 |page=84 |quote=... [Licio Gelli] organized a special, ultrasecret, ultrarightist lodge, Propaganda-Due |isbn=0773572074}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Bar-On |first=Tamir |title=Where have all the fascists gone |publisher=Ashgate |location=Aldershot, England; Burlington, Vermont |year=2007 |page=39 |quote=... a similar strategy of infiltration within the military milieu by Italian radical right-wing terrorist groups and clandestine elite pressure groups such as ''Propaganda-Due'' (P-2) ... |isbn=978-0754671541}}</ref> [[criminal organization]] and [[secret society]] operating in contravention of Article 18 of the [[Constitution of Italy]] that banned all such secret associations.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6b59cc.html |title=Constitution of Italy (English) |date=1947-12-22 |access-date=2022-07-05}}</ref> [[Licio Gelli]] continued to operate the unaffiliated lodge from 1976 to 1984.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Gray
 |first1               = David L.
 |author-link1         = David L. Gray
 |date                 = 4 February 2020
 |title                = The Catholic Catechism on Freemasonry: A Theological and Historical Treatment on the Catholic Church's Prohibition AgainstFreemasonry and its Appendant Masonic Bodies
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=171vEAAAQBAJ
 |publication-place    = Belleville, Illinois
 |publisher            = Saint Dominic's Media. Inc.
 |page                 = 122
 |isbn                 = 9781732178496
 |access-date          = 30 April 2023
 |quote                = In 1976 the Grand Orient of Italy formally seized the charter of P2 and expelled its Worshipful Master, Licio Gelli (a Fascist), who continued to operate P2 as an unaffiliated lodge in Italy until 1984.
}} 
</ref>
P2 was implicated in numerous Italian crimes and mysteries, including the collapse of the [[Holy See]]-affiliated [[Banco Ambrosiano]], the [[contract killing]]s of journalist [[Carmine Pecorelli]] and mobbed-up bank president [[Roberto Calvi]], and [[political corruption]] cases within the nationwide [[Tangentopoli]] [[bribery]] scandal. P2 came to light through the investigations into the collapse of [[Michele Sindona]]'s financial empire.<ref>{{cite news |title=Masonic lodge affair leaves Italy shocked |work=The Times |date=May 23, 1981}}</ref>

P2 was sometimes referred to as a "[[state within a state]]"<ref name="BBC 260581">[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/may/26/newsid_4396000/4396893.stm "BBC On This Day: 26 May 1981"].</ref> or a "[[Shadow government (conspiracy)|shadow government]]".<ref>Jones, ''The Dark Heart of Italy'', p. 187.</ref> The lodge had among its members prominent [[journalist]]s, members of the Italian parliament, [[industrialist]]s, and senior [[Italian military]] officers —including [[Silvio Berlusconi]], who later became [[Prime Minister of Italy]]; the [[House of Savoy]] [[pretender]] to the Italian throne [[Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples|Prince Victor Emmanuel]];<ref name="Hooper 2006">{{cite news|last1=Hooper|first1=John|title=The fall of the house of Savoy|url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2006/jun/23/italy.johnhooper|newspaper=The Guardian|date=23 June 2006|access-date=2 June 2016}}</ref> and the heads of all three Italian [[foreign intelligence]] services (at the time [[SISDE]], [[SISMI]], and [[CESIS]]). When searching Gelli's villa in 1982, police found a document which he had entitled "Plan for Democratic Rebirth", which called for a [[coup d'etat]], the [[consolidation of the media]], the suppression of Italian [[labor union]]s, and the rewriting of the Italian constitution.<ref>Jones, ''The Dark Heart of Italy'',  p. 186.</ref> A more recent source claims that a copy of the "[[Plan for Democratic Rebirth]]" was found by Rome airport customs officials in 1981 (one year previously) in the bottom of a false bottomed suitcase belonging to Licio Gelli's daughter as she arrived in Rome from Brazil.  Also found were forged Swiss Bank documents allegedly intended to discredit investigating magistrates working on the P2 case.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dickie |first=John |title=The Craft |publisher=Hodder |year=2020 |page=394}}</ref>

Outside of Italy, P2 had many active lodges in [[Venezuela]], [[Uruguay]], [[Brazil]], [[Chile]], and [[Argentina]]. Among its Argentine members were [[Raúl Alberto Lastiri]], who was briefly interim president of the country after the end of the self-styled "[[Argentine Revolution]]" dictatorship (1966–1973); [[Emilio Massera]], who was part of the military junta led by [[Jorge Rafael Videla]] during [[National Reorganization Process|Argentina's last civil-military dictatorship]] (1976–1983); the [[Orthodox Peronism|Peronist orthodox]] [[José López Rega]], who was Minister of Social Welfare (1973–1975) and founder of the [[paramilitary]] organisation [[Argentine Anticommunist Alliance]] (AAA); and former [[Argentine Army]] General, [[Dirty War]] perpetrator, and convicted murderer [[Guillermo Suárez Mason]].<ref name="p12 barco" />