Conte: “Red zone? I didn’t know about the 300 soldiers”
The Bergamo investigation into Covid and the delay in the red areas continues. As La Stampa recounts, Giuseppe Conte recounted that “he would only have known “from press reports” that three hundred soldiers had been sent to the Bergamo area to surround the Seriana valley: parked in two hotels and then sent back, waiting for an order that would never come.” Heard by the prosecutors, continues the press, “on June 12, 2020, Conte said he was aware of the “critical issues” of Alzano and Nembro, where the contagion had exploded since February 23 and people died “like flies», «only after the Council of Ministers of 5 March» when he received the email with the draft of the dpcm already signed by Minister Speranza before leaving for Brussels”.
Covid, Speranza: “Conte knew about my signature on the draft for the red zone”
However, Speranza does not agree. Hearing from prosecutors as a witness, then Health Minister Roberto Speranza claims that former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte knew of his signature on the draft for the red zone in Val Seriana. “When I signed the Dpcm proposal, I had already spoken about it with President Conte. I also recall that I had already spoken about the Alzano/Nembro issue, raised in the CTS minutes of 3 March 2020, with President Conte on 4 March 2020. In those days, however, the confrontation with Conte on these issues was clearly constant” is Speranza’s answer to the question of why the draft decree on Val Seriana bore his signature even before that of the former prime minister. “My concern was to ensure that the process of the provision was not slowed down by my imminent trip to Brussels. In fact, it was foreseen that I would not return to Rome before the afternoon of the following day. The opportunity to sign, from that moment , the proposal of the Dpcm, precisely in order not to delay the process and even before receiving the clarifications requested from Brusaferro, was also shared by President Conte”, he adds, pointing out that “my Office does not know of any formal request from the Lombardy Region relating to the red zone of Alzano/Nembro”.
Pressing the mayors not to close
Meanwhile, however, several newspapers rThey bring pressure from local authorities but also from other politicians to avoid closures. Chats appear in the Repubblica “between the mayor of Bergamo George Gori and the director of Ast Massimo Giupponi. “But does it make sense to close all schools? – asks the mayor – . I would be closing, for now, only high school, where we have students who come from many different municipalities and even from outside the province ». The two also wrote to each other on March 3, when the situation in the Bergamo area got much worse. Gori: «They confirm that ISS insists on extending the red zone, you’ll know better than me. But it is one thing to put Alzano and Nembro in the red zone, also to protect Bergamo, another a city of 120 thousand inhabitants: it would be very hard ». “I agree – replies Giupponi – but it is not ISS that decides the red areas”. “Better””.
According to Republic, the mayor of Alzano said: “I’m reading news about a possible red zone in Alzano. Do we need reassurance in this regard? I’m waiting. My economic activities are understandably in total panic and I’m no longer able to reassure you without an official note from you”.
Salvini: “He doesn’t want the Region to take a position to embarrass the government”
La Stampa gives an account of another aspect linked to the Lombardy Region. First he reports a passage contained in the documents of the investigation: “In the light of the above it is highlighted that: the Lombardy Region, although it was directly aware of the exponential expansion of the contagion in its territory … has never formally requested, agreed or solicited the government no contingent provision for the territories of Alzano and Nembro, nor has it done so for other regional areas”. Then a message from the high regional official Andreassi in a message to the regional councilor of Italia Viva Nicolò Carretta: “Senator Matteo Salvini does not want the Region to take a stand. He wants to embarrass the government … Unfortunately the president is hindered by Confindustria and I imagine by Salvini”.
Failure to prevent: “Cucumbers are flying, they’ll ask for damages”
Instead, the words of the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health appear in the Fatto Quotidiano, Giuseppe Ruocco, pronounced before patient one in Italy: “I am busy – he wrote to his colleague in the chat acquired by the Bergamo prosecutor – dodging another flying cucumber. Even the Regions want money from Prot Civile and I must avoid being appointed actuator for the entire NHS “. According to what the Fatto Quotidiano writes “he was worried about not having expenses that were difficult to justify, he had already written to the same manager a few days earlier, on February 15th: “They want to force me to buy health products for all of Italy”
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