The group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the regional council in Puglia, Francesco Ventola, candidate in the European elections on the ticket with Giorgia Meloni, is under investigation for criminal association and electoral corruption. The complaint came from a member of the opposition, who the Melonian representative in turn denounced for slander.
Francesco Ventola, group leader of the Brothers of Italy in the regional council in Puglia and candidate for the European elections on the ticket with Giorgia Meloni, is under investigation by the Trani prosecutor’s office for criminal association and electoral corruption: the local newspapers made it known, but the news was communicated already yesterday during a press conference at the Municipality of Canosa. In particular, this was made known by the lawyer Andrea Silvestri, former regional councilor in the early 2000s and president of the civic list ‘I love Canosa’, a member of +Europa.
Silvestri showed the judicial document of request for extension of investigations, underlining that eight other people would be involved. The video of the press conference was then removed from Facebook, but in the meantime it was shared by several users and circulated in some WhatsApp chats. Reached by Corriere del Mezzogiorno, Ventola explained that last February he received a notice of extension of the investigations.
The investigation would have been opened by the Trani Prosecutor’s Office on one complaint arrived from Silvestri’s circle: “I note that for the second time Andrea Silvestri held a press conference with the intention of throwing mud, in a slanderous way, on my person and on the municipal administration of Canosa. In fact, a few months ago he called a press conference with the aim of giving publicity to the investigation, triggered by his entourage“, Ventola told the newspaper. Then he added: “We have denounced Silvestri for those slanderous and false statements and we are now also carefully examining the most recent reports, to reserve them similar judicial treatment“.
Agcom says that Fratelli d’Italia is the party with the most ‘speaking time’ on Rai news
The Melonian politician then concluded: “Precisely the one who, with tribunal tones, denounced the alleged electoral corruption is a politician whose judicial curriculum ranges from criminal association, to embezzlement, to material falsehood, to ideological falsehood, to fraud, crimes for which he was arrested and, for some charges, even convicted“.
Silvestri responded to these statements: “These are proceedings from more than twenty years ago, for which I settled: now I am a citizen and a freelancer and I resolved my issues with the justice system at the time. It is Ventola, as a public figure candidate for the European elections, who must answer for his actions“.
