Editing Propaganda Due (section)

==Discovery==
The activities of P2 were discovered by prosecutors while investigating banker [[Michele Sindona]], the collapse of his bank and his ties to the [[Sicilian Mafia]].<ref name="Stille p39">Stille, ''Excellent Cadavers'', pp. 39–40.</ref> In March 1981, police found a list of alleged members in Gelli's house in [[Arezzo]]. It contained 962 names, among which were important state officials, important politicians and a number of military officers, including the heads of the three Italian secret services.<ref name="Ginsborg p144" /> Future Italian prime minister [[Silvio Berlusconi]] was on the list, although he had not yet entered politics at the time. Another famous member was [[Vittorio Emanuele, Prince of Naples|Victor Emmanuel]], the son of the last [[Umberto II|Italian king]].

Prime Minister [[Arnaldo Forlani]] (whose {{lang|fr|chef de cabinet}} was a P2 member as well)<ref name="Ginsborg p144" /> appointed a Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry, headed by the independent DC [[Tina Anselmi]]. In May 1981, Forlani was forced to resign due to the P2 scandal, causing the fall of the Italian government.<ref name="BBC 260581" /><ref name="Time 1981-06-08">[https://archive.today/20130104231755/http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,922552,00.html "A Grand Master's Conspiracy"], ''Time'', 8 June 1981.</ref>

In January 1982, the P2 lodge was definitively disbanded by the Law 25 January 1982, no. 17. In July 1982, new documents were found hidden in the false bottom of a suitcase belonging to Gelli's daughter at Fiumicino airport in Rome. The documents were entitled {{lang|it|Memorandum sulla situazione italiana}} ("Memorandum on the Italian Situation") and {{lang|it|Piano di rinascita democratica}} ("Plan of Democratic Rebirth"), and are seen as the political programme of P2. According to these documents, the main enemies of Italy were the [[Italian Communist Party]] (PCI) and the [[Trade unions in Italy|trade unions]], particularly the Communist [[Italian General Confederation of Labour]] (CGIL). These had to be isolated and cooperation with the PCI, the second biggest party in Italy and one of the largest in Europe, which was proposed in the [[Historic Compromise]] by [[Aldo Moro]], needed to be disrupted.<ref name="Ginsborg p144" />

Gelli's goal was to form a new political and economic elite to lead Italy away from the danger of Communist rule. More controversially, it sought to do this by means of an [[authoritarian]] form of democracy.<ref name="gelli">{{lang|it|italic=no|2=[http://www.stragi.it/index.php?pagina=vicenda&par=p2 "La loggia massonica P2 (Loggia Propaganda Due)"]}}, {{lang|it|Associazione tra i familiari delle vittime della strage alla stazione di Bologna del 2 agosto 1980}} {{in lang|it}}. The list of P2 members is in the final report of the Italian Parliamentary commission of inquiry: {{lang|it|italic=no|[http://www.strano.net/stragi/tstragi/relmp2/index.html Relazione di Maggioranza (Anselmi)]}}, {{lang|it|italic=no|Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sulla Loggia massonica P2}}, July 12, 1984.</ref> P2 advocated a programme of extensive political corruption: "political parties, newspapers and trade unions can be the objects of possible solicitations which could take the form of economic-financial manoeuvres. The availability of sums not exceeding 30 to 40 billion lire{{refn|40 billion lire in 1982 was equivalent to €{{Format price|{{#expr:({{Inflation|IT|40000000000|1982|r=2}} / 1936.27<!--Official conversion factor for lira to euro on adoption-->) round 2}}}} in {{Inflation/year|IT}}.{{Inflation/fn|IT}}}} would seem sufficient to allow carefully chosen men, acting in good faith, to conquer key positions necessary for overall control."<ref name="Ginsborg p144" />