Editing Licio Gelli (section)

== Early life ==

Gelli was born in [[Pistoia]], [[Tuscany]]. During the 1930s, Gelli, when he was still a seventeen-year-old student in a [[Liceo classico|Liceo Classico]] high school in [[Pistoia]], was expelled from all schools in Italy<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www-rainews-it.translate.goog/archivio-rainews/articoli/Il-sogno-irrealizzato-di-Licio-Gelli-un-film-sulla-sua-vita-b2dca1e4-57bd-4c40-99ad-dc5556045e45.html?_x_tr_sl=it&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=it&_x_tr_pto=wapp|language=it|publisher=[[Rai News]]|title=The unfulfilled dream of Licio Gelli: a film about his life|date=December 20, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230305202222/https://www.rainews.it/archivio-rainews/articoli/Il-sogno-irrealizzato-di-Licio-Gelli-un-film-sulla-sua-vita-b2dca1e4-57bd-4c40-99ad-dc5556045e45.html?refresh_ce|archive-date=March 5, 2023|url-status=live}}</ref> and left as a volunteer to fight in Spain with the Fascist Brigades that supported Generalissimo Franco. It was in the fighting of Malaga that his older brother Raffaello died. The youngest recruit in his contingent, he was decorated by Franco himself.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.focus.it/cultura/storia/licio-gelli-morto|title=Scoperta 40 anni fa la loggia massonica P2: chi era Licio Gelli?|language=it}}</ref>

Gelli also volunteered for the [[Blackshirts]] expeditionary forces sent by [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]] in support of [[Francisco Franco]]'s rebellion in the [[Spanish Civil War]].<ref name="Newsweek">{{cite magazine | title = The Suitcase Scandalo | magazine = Newsweek | date = 1981-06-08}}</ref> He served as liaison officer between the Italian government and Nazi Germany,<ref>{{cite web|title=Licio Gelli, financier - obituary Grandmaster of Italy's notorious P2 Masonic lodge who was implicated in some of Italy's biggest post-war political and financial scandals|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/12054716/Licio-Gelli-financier-obituary.html|website=Telegraph.co.uk|publisher=The Telegraph|access-date=4 July 2017}}</ref> and participated in the [[Italian Social Republic]] with [[Giorgio Almirante]], founder of the [[neofascism|neofascist]] [[Italian Social Movement]] (MSI).<ref name="repubblica">{{cite news | title=Giustizia, tv, ordine pubblico è finita proprio come dicevo io | newspaper=[[La Repubblica]] | date=September 28, 2003 | url=http://www.repubblica.it/2003/i/sezioni/politica/gelli/gelli/gelli.html|language=it}}</ref><ref name ="AP1">{{cite news | title = n.a. | publisher = Associated Press | date = 1982-09-14}}</ref>

After a sales job with the Italian mattress factory Permaflex, Gelli founded his own textile and importing company.<ref name="Newsweek" /><ref name="AP1" />