During his long career with Christian Democracy (DC) that began in the 1950s, Lima was first allied with the faction of Amintore Fanfani and after 1964 with the one of Giulio Andreotti, seven times prime minister and a member of almost every post-war Italian government.

Lima rarely spoke in public or campaigned during elections but usually managed to gain large support from seemingly nowhere when it came to voting day.

In the early 1950s, after obtaining a degree in Law from the University of Palermo, he found a job at the Banco di Sicilia.

From 1958 to 1963, Lima was mayor of Palermo, his birthplace, while his fellow Christian Democrat Vito Ciancimino was assessor for public works.

[1] As mayor of Palermo, Lima arranged an unusually lucrative concession to collect taxes in Sicily to Antonio Salvo and Ignazio Salvo, two wealthy Mafia cousins from the town of Salemi in the province of Trapani, in exchange for their loyalty to Lima and the Andreotti faction of Christian Democracy.

Already in 1964, one of Falcone's predecessors, judge Cesare Terranova, unequivocally demonstrated Lima's connections with the La Barberas.

The undeniable contacts of the La Barbera mafiosi with the one who was the first citizen of Palermo ... constitute a confirmation of ... the infiltration of the Mafia in several sectors of public life.

With Lima, who at some time was in control of 25 percent of all party members in Sicily, the Andreotti faction turned into a truly national group.

A new dominant group within the Mafia, headed by Salvatore Riina of Corleone, killed and replaced the traditional bosses of Palermo and their associates.

"[8] Italy's Supreme Court of Cassation, which is the court of final appeal,[nb 1] ruled in October 2004 that Andreotti had "friendly and even direct ties" with the Mafia,[13][14][15] particularly top men in the moderate wing of Cosa Nostra, such as Stefano Bontade and Gaetano Badalamenti,[16][17] and that this was favoured by the connection between them and Lima.

In their opinion they had failed to block the confirmation of the sentence of the Maxi Trial by the Supreme Court of Cassation in January 1992, which upheld the Buscetta theorem that Cosa Nostra was a single hierarchical organisation ruled by the Sicilian Mafia Commission and that its leaders could be held responsible for criminal acts that were committed to benefit the organisation.

Carnevale had to withdraw due to pressure from the public and from Giovanni Falcone, who at the time had moved to the ministry of Justice.

[21] Tommaso Buscetta, moved by the deaths of Falcone and Borsellino, decided to break his long silence on ties between politics and Cosa Nostra.

On 16 November 1992, Buscetta testified before the Antimafia Commission presided by Luciano Violante about the links between Cosa Nostra and Lima and Andreotti.

Buscetta testified: "Salvo Lima was, in fact, the politician to whom Cosa Nostra turned most often to resolve problems for the organisation whose solution lay in Rome.

"[22] Other collaborating witnesses confirmed that Lima had been specifically ordered to fix the appeal of the Maxi Trial with the Supreme Court of Cassation and had been murdered because he failed to do so.

Gaspare Mutolo stated: "I knew that for any problems requiring a solution in Rome, Lima was the man we turned to.

"[8][23][24] According to Mutolo, "Lima was killed because he was the greatest symbol of that part of the political world which, after doing favours for Cosa Nostra in exchange for its votes, was no longer able to protect the interests of the organisation at the time of its most important trial.

[3] In 1993, the Antimafia Commission led by senator Luciano Violante concluded that there were strong indications of relations between Lima and members of Cosa Nostra.