Investigation in Genoa, Toti after 9 hours: “Here is my truth”
Almost nine hours of interrogation and 180 questions from the prosecutor’s office. The day of truth for Giovanni Toti, president of the Liguria Region, under house arrest on charges of corruption since May 7, is marked by these numbers. The River interrogation, requested by the governor himself after choosing to avail himself of the right not to answer before the investigating judge last May 10, took place in the Guardia di Finanza barracks in the port of Genoa.
Toti answered all the questions and gave the prosecutors Federico Manotti and Luca Monteverde, as well as the deputy Vittorio Ranieri Miniati, a 17-page brief to “explain the political and moral lines which, since I assumed the honor of guide the Liguria Region, have always informed the activity pursued by the Regional Council with the sole perspective of serving the good and common interest of the Ligurian citizens and their institutions: every euro collected was allocated to politics”, with all expenses traceable at any time, the governor wrote. A memory in which he reiterates “the firm will to collaborate, with transparency and honesty, in the reconstruction of the Truth in the supreme interest of Justice, to restore to my figure as a man and servant of the State the Dignity that I have constantly tried to to preserve”.
The investigative interrogation took place in the offices of the Naval Operations Department, the Roan of the Financial Police at Molo Giano. The place where, on 7 May 2013, 9 people died due to the collapse of the Pilots Tower thrown down from the Jolly Nero. The questions that the prosecutors asked him concerned the charges contested at the time of the arrest: the alleged vote exchange and corruption.
Toti explained that his actions “(even those contested) were inspired, certainly by the right attention towards companies operating in the area, but with the sole perspective of protecting the collective interest and its progress”, that “every euro collected had a political purpose: no contribution produced personal enrichment or utility for me, for other members of my party or for private third parties” and that he had “never felt indebted to those who had contributed to my political initiative”. Now the governor intends to ask the investigating judge to revoke the precautionary measure of house arrest, a decisive step also to clarify his political future. If the investigating judge were to accept, Toti could in fact start a discussion with his majority and decide whether or not to resign from the position of governor. To find out if this will happen, you will have to wait at least a week.
Orlando: “Liguria is paralyzed right say what it wants to do”
“More than two weeks after Toti’s arrest, let the right tell us how to make the administration of Liguria, dealing with a gigantic amount of investments, compatible with the stalemate that has been created.” This was explained by Andrea Orlando, former Keeper of the Seals and deputy of the Democratic Party, born in La Spezia, and the most accredited of the centre-left candidates to succeed the current governor, in an interview with Republic. “Since Giorgia Meloni has always waved the flag of development and growth, of attention to businesses, of speed in the implementation of the Pnrr, now it is her turn to explain how all this can be done in a substantially paralyzed region – he continues -. And this is net of the political judgment on the matter, that is, that we are faced with an expropriation of democracy.”
Orlando explains how he had long been denouncing “a predatory oligarchy in the Region. Even without having today’s elements, the signs were already there: the protagonists of the economic and urban planning raids were always the same; the commissioners were aimed at skipping the ordinary paths ; pieces of information were conditioned by this system”. When asked if early elections are the only possible option, the former minister responds dryly: “What is the alternative? Let the right say how it wants to continue and if it can.”
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