“Toti can continue to work, then we’ll see. I am a guarantor. It’s really very early to make decisions.” Antonio Tajani, intercepted by journalists as he left Palazzo Madama this morning, declared that he supports a wait-and-see line, waiting for at least the review court to rule before starting to think about the hypothesis of early elections.
In complete disagreement with him were the three hundred people who gathered this afternoon in Piazza De Ferrari, in front of the Region building, to ask with one voice for the resignation of the President of the Region Giovanni Toti, who ended up under house arrest as part of the investigation which it shook Ligurian politics and economy to its foundations, involving the political and operational leaders of the regional administration and entrepreneurs from the port of Genoa and Spezzino.
Among those present in Piazza De Ferrari there were many students, party secretaries and citizen committees: the world of the center-left and associations of the Ligurian capital responded to the appeal of the civic association Genova che dares. The demonstration began at 6pm and lasted for about an hour to give space for speeches.
Among flags, posters and banners, the recurring messages were against the mafia and corruption, also in consideration of the charges brought against the suspects in various capacities, such as corruption and electoral corruption aggravated by mafia facilitation.
Among the crowd we could see the group leader of the Sansa List in the Region, Ferruccio Sansa, and the La Spezia MEP of the Democratic Party, Brando Benifei.
“I am in Genoa for another commitment – Benifei explained to Ansa – but I thought it was right to join this protest because I agree with the demands of these citizens’ associations who ask for a step back from those who today still lead the junta despite be suspended. We cannot hold the region hostage to an unsustainable situation. You cannot have a council with the president under house arrest and with a vice president who has to deal with a majority that will have to respond politically to the issues that are emerging. This is just the latest in a series of events that puts an end to the Toti era.”
Sansa added: “We are here to ask that we move on completely. There is the president of the Region under house arrest, the former president of the port in prison, an important entrepreneur under house arrest. There is Mayor Bucci who is not under investigation but had wanted Signorini at the top of Iren and went arm in arm with all the protagonists of this affair and must give explanations, he cannot pretend to have disembarked from Mars five minutes ago”.
Meanwhile, on the investigation front, new elements emerge, starting with the probable presence of a mole who provided information relating to the investigators’ work to some of the suspects.
It is an aspect on which the Guardia di Finanza is working, coordinated by prosecutors Federico Manotti and Luca Monteverde, in light of what emerged from the environmental interceptions. In particular, the episode that highlights the presence of a spy dates back to September 2020, when the Testa brothers, considered mafia members and present in Genoa for a meeting with the Riesi community, were approached by a man wearing a sweatshirt and hat, then identified by the investigators: “You see they are investigating, don’t name names and don’t talk on the phone… They are investigating.” In response, one of the two Testas replies: “Yes, I know, don’t worry… I have it stutated (“off” in Sicilian dialect)”.
Who provided information on the investigations? Investigators are working on it.
Meanwhile, rejecting the accusations rained down from some quarters on the work of the Genoese prosecutor’s office, the chief prosecutor Nicola Piacente declared in a note that the arrest which took place the day before yesterday at the Lolly hotel in Sanremo against Toti occurred after the 7 in the morning “in full compliance with the provisions of the law and the dignity of the person”.
“With reference to the news disseminated by some media outlets in relation to the execution of the precautionary custody order issued on 6 May 2024 by the investigating judge of the Court of Genoa – we read in Piacente’s note –, according to which the intervention would which took place at 3am on 7 May 2024, the Public Prosecutor’s Office deems it necessary to point out that, as shown by the documents, the judicial police officers of the Economic-Financial Police Unit of Genoa of the Financial Police undertook the operations after 7am ”.
