Editing Romano Prodi (section)

===Ministry of Industry and Aldo Moro's kidnapping===
[[File:Prodi Pertini Andreotti.jpg|thumb|upright|Prodi with [[Sandro Pertini]] and [[Giulio Andreotti]] in 1978]]
On 25 November 1978, Prodi was appointed [[Italian Minister of Economic Development|Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Crafts]] in the government of the [[Christian Democracy (Italy)|Christian Democracy]] leader [[Giulio Andreotti]]. Even if he was a party member, Prodi was widely considered a technical minister. As minister, he promoted a law, known as Prodi law, which aimed a regulating of the extraordinary state administration procedure for the rescue of large enterprises in crisis.<ref>[http://www.101professionisti.it/guida/fallimento/leggi/detta-anche-legge-prodi-ha-introdotto-nel-nostro-ordinamento-l-amministrazione-straordinaria-delle-253.aspx Detta anche Legge Prodi, ha introdotto nel nostro ordinamento l'amministrazione straordinaria delle grandi imprese in crisi]</ref>

On 2 April 1978, Prodi and other teachers at the [[University of Bologna]] passed on a tip-off that revealed the whereabouts of the [[safe house]] where the kidnapped [[Aldo Moro]], the former prime minister, was being held captive by the [[Red Brigades]]. Prodi stated that he had been given this tip-off by the founders of Christian Democracy, contacted from beyond the grave via a [[séance]] and a [[Ouija]] board. Whilst during this supposed séance Prodi thought ''Gradoli'' referred to a town on the outskirts of Rome, it probably referred to the Roman address of a Red Brigades safe house, located at no. 96, Via Gradoli.<ref name="leonardo" >{{cite web |url=http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1978c.htm |title=Moro e i segreti, by Paolo Avanti, page at Cronologia italiana history website |publisher=Cronologia.leonardo.it |access-date=5 May 2013 |archive-date=30 January 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130130035630/http://cronologia.leonardo.it/storia/a1978c.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref>

The information was trusted, and a police group made an armed blitz in the town of Gradoli, 80&nbsp;km from [[Rome]], on the following day, 6 April,<ref name="leonardo" /> although Moro was not found. The supernatural element was generally not overlooked during the investigations. For example, the Italian government had engaged a [[Divination|diviner]], hoping that he would find Moro's location.<ref>{{cite web|last=Agnoli|first=Francesco|date=2004|url=http://www.salpan.org/ARTICOLI/Seduta%20spiritica%20di%20Prodi.htm|title=La seduta spiritica di Prodi e l'omicidio Moro|website=Salpan|language=it|access-date=10 August 2023}}</ref> The police made another fruitless blitz in Viterbo after an abbess declared that, during a vision, she had seen him there.<ref>Flamigni, Sergio. ''La tela del ragno''. pp. 102–103.</ref>

Prodi spoke to the [[Italian Parliament]]'s commission about the case in 1981. In the notes of the Italian Parliament commission on terrorism, the séance is described as a fake, used to hide the true source of the information.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.repubblica.it/online/fatti/pellegrino/pelle/pelle.html |title=Pellegrino: un'intelligence a caccia delle carte di Moro, on ''La Repubblica online website'', 28 July 1999 |publisher=Repubblica.it |access-date=5 May 2013}}</ref> In 1997, Andreotti declared that the information came from the Bologna section of [[Autonomia Operaia]], a far-left organization with some ties with the Red Brigades, and that [[Francesco Cossiga]] also knew the true source. Judge [[Ferdinando Imposimato]] considered Andreotti's theory as possible but accused him of having kept information that could have been valuable in a trial about Moro's murder.<ref>Dino Martiniano. "Macchè seduta spiritica per Moro". ''Corriere della Sera''. 12 April 1999.</ref> Moro's widow later declared that she had repeatedly informed the police that a Via Gradoli existed in Rome, but the investigators did not consider it; some replied to her that the street did not appear in Rome's maps. This is confirmed by other Moro relatives but strongly denied by Cossiga, who served as Interior Minister during Moro's kidnapping.<ref>[https://patrimonio.archivio.senato.it/inventario/scheda/terrorismo-e-stragi-x-xiii-leg/IT-SEN-114-015981/seduta-n-48-del-9-marzo-1999#lg=1&slide=0 Commissione parlamentare d'inchiesta sul terrorismo in Italia e sulle cause della mancata individuazione dei responsabili delle stragi, 48th session, interview of Giovanni Moro, 9 March 1999], in Archivio storico del [[Senato della Repubblica]] (ASSR), Terrorismo e stragi (X-XIII leg.), 1.48].</ref>