For the Minister of Defense Guido Crosetto, in the case of Paolo Signorelli what should be most shocking is not only that private messages are disseminated, but that “someone talks about them”, despite them being “irrelevant for the State”, in order to “be able to use them when needed ». Signorelli resigned as spokesperson for the minister Francesco Lollobrigida, after Repubblica published passages of his chats with Fabrizio Piscitelli in which, among other things, there were several anti-Semitic phrases. Messages that can be criticized, Crosetto writes on X, reiterating however that “none of us should know the private conversations of others”.
Crosetto never mentions Signorelli in his post, but refers to various details on the affair of Lollobrigida’s former spokesperson, defended to the end by the Minister of Agriculture himself. Like him, Crosetto criticizes the choice made by Repubblica to disclose those messages: «You are a citizen with no criminal record – writes the minister – They intercept your WhatsApp messages in a group with friends, as part of an investigation. None of those messages are relevant. They are not destroyed. They remain in a drawer, a computer, a shelf for years. Then you become the collaborator of someone famous who likes to hurt. They get those messages out. They extrapolate them from any context. They make them public. They massacre you. They ruin your life. And they pass on to others.”
What should therefore be shocking, Crosetto explains, is that «the fact that there is someone who keeps private facts (irrelevant for the State), in order to be able to use them when needed, at least as much as we were shocked by the contents. Instead, it is now normal practice for everyone. For me no. But, as I am seeing in the dossier case, I am one of the few who are interested in respecting democratic rules for everyone. Friends or adversaries.”
The back and forth with Orfini
Matteo Orfini, deputy and leader of the Democratic Party who contests it, was among the first to respond to Crosetto’s post: «Is it normal for a government collaborator to have friendly relations in the past with one of the leaders of Roman organized crime? With a drug trafficker linked to the Camorra? Because that’s the point, and you know it well.” Crosetto replies: «No, the point you pretend not to understand is another. He is a person with no criminal record, honest, clean, who has never been accused of anything, despite the fact that he knew (since childhood) people who turned out to be dishonest or criminals or even Camorra members. So he is a clean person like you and me! Indeed he is after having been certified as such following a serious and long investigation. He has the same rights and duties as me and yours! And he had the right to have his conversations, totally irrelevant and unrelated to any crime, destroyed. He had the right to live a normal life since he had never hurt anyone or committed any crime. Did the reported conversations disgust me? Yes. But it also disgusted me to have read them in the newspapers used as a club to harm a political opponent. When and if they publish yours, I will defend whatever you say about me in private. With respect”.
Orfini then replies: «Apart from the fact that they published mine illegally (Mediterranean affair) and the group leader of your party intervened in the chamber to attack me and you didn’t say a word, I’m asking you something else: it’s normal that a person who has those acquaintances is chosen for such delicate tasks? It’s a political (and security) issue, the judicial matter has nothing to do with it.”
