Celectoral corruptionthis is the serious accusation, perhaps the worst for a politician, against the former mayor of Manfredonia, Gianni Rotice. His brother is also under investigation Michele known as “Lino” to whom Rotice dedicated the victory in November 2021. “This tricolor sash is yours too”he said during the celebrations in the council chamber.
Now, however, the Rotice administration is no longer there, having fallen towards the end of 2023 after the mass resignation of city councilors. Instead, there is the “Hands off” investigation which involves as many as ten people. The notice of conclusion of investigations (investigation by the Foggia Prosecutor’s Office and the Financial Police) concerns Michele Fatone known as “Racastill” (currently in cell), his son Raphael, Rocco Spagnuolo, Michele Romito, Angelo Salvemini, Giuliana Galantino, Grazia Romito (Michele’s sister), Luigi Rotolo and, indeed, the brothers Gianni and Michele Rotice.
The new names, not present in March, the period of the arrests, are those of the former mayor and his brother and of Spagnuolo, the latter employee of the Ase waste company and colleague of the two Fatones.
Romito’s reconstruction to the prosecutor
The Rotice, as anticipated months ago by the Immediate which exclusively published Michele Romito’s interrogation report, ended up in the investigation for the “Guarda che Luna” case. According to the investigators, the file is in the hands of the Manfredonian prosecutor Roberto Gallithe Rotice brothers would have asked the Romito family for votes, guaranteeing in exchange not to hinder the permanence of the restaurant on the city cliff in the “Acqua di Cristo” area.
“Mr. Judge, I I don’t even know where to start – Romito began –. I could respond to every page of this ordinance but I would like to start, I don’t know whether to start with the structure first or start with the accusations first. I turned to Salvemini (at the time councilor for Public Works, ed), because… First of all, I was told by the mayor Gianni Rotice to go to Salvemini“.
Romito remembered his relationships with the Rotices, a historic Manfredonian family of building entrepreneurs. “I have known each other with the Rotice family for more than 35-36 years, think about that I was invited to my children’s weddings. Since I on the Municipality, Mr. Judge… It seems that I have the plague, I had the plague; indeed, I dissociate myself from the surname and from all the criminal facts of my family (the brothers Franco and Mario Luciano they were killed in the Gargano mafia war, ed), of the surname. I am responsible for my children, my grandchildren and myself, I don’t want the rest…”.
The judge: “In fact, if you have read the order, I will not emphasize this, I will only look at what concerns the conduct that interests us in this proceeding.” Romito: “Yes, but the others have played on this fact here”.
It is inevitable to talk about the 2021 municipal elections that led to the victory of Gianni Rotice in the runoff: “When there was… There were supposed to be votes, I’m someone who doesn’t even want to touch on politics, I have the electoral card, I’m going to vote, that’s it, I’m going home; I was called by Linen (Michele Rotice, ed), who I call Lino, who for me still today I say that he’s like a brother. Lino Rotice, Gianni’s brother. I’ll tell you more, I live in a house owned by Mr. Lino Rotice. I saw each other until last week and I went for a walk under his house, him and me. He calls me Lino Rotice and tells me: ‘Michele, you see that my brother Gianni has to run for mayor, please then you have to lend a hand’, when he says you must, he talks about me, my children, some friends and everything else: ‘You must lend a hand to my brother Gianni’, this and that, and I say: ‘Lino, don’t put me in the middle of these situations, I have a lot of problems on my mind, the restaurant thing, the fact that we’re doing administrative trials, this and that’ . Now, thanking the Lord, Prof. made the request of the technical table. Follieri. I want to explain to the public prosecutors that the request for a conflict of competence between the offices, the technical table, occurred before the votes; I want to be clear. Then all the questions you want, I’ll answer everything.”
The meeting in the small room of the stadium
“Lino Rotice calls me and explains this fact to me, I say: ‘Lino, don’t get me involved in these facts here’ – ‘Come on, you have to do it for me, you have to do it for me, Gianni then you know how it is’ – ‘Okay, okay, we’ll see then, don’t worry’”.
Subsequently, Romito spoke of a meeting with the Rotice in a room of the Miramare stadium, during football school training. “While we were watching the training, there were me and Rotice’s cousin, Unlucky Matteo – former Manfredonia player together with my brother Ivan, who played football together, he was the captain of Manfredonia; I was sitting there, and Lino and Gianni Rotice, the mayor, who wasn’t yet mayor at the time, came from downstairs, but the voting was about to take place. We enter a small room. Gianni Rotice says to me next to me: ‘What do you have on the phone?’ – ‘Yes why? What happened?’ – ‘No, no, let’s leave it out, let’s leave it out’; I took the phone… Matteo Unlucky was also there and said: ‘No, you don’t need it but leave it out too’. We take the cell phone and put them outside and Lino says next to me: ‘Hey, you have to get busy here now, we have to help my brother to do… he has to come out in the run-off, all together, friends…’ I said: ‘Lino, don’t put me in these situations, this and that’ – ‘No, you see what you have to do. Come on, Michele, what then we have to sort out Manfredonia because I…’. And I said, ‘Okay, okay, I’ll see you then.’ And we went on like this. We always have the other meeting before the votes, at Lino Rotice’s, at the office, it’s in front… We call an area, it’s called Ajinomoto, in front is the company Rotice Antonio, which however is by Michele Rotice. I go in, I go there and there was Lino Rotice; I was there, Lino Rotice, Santoro and Gianni Rotice was also there and they repeat the same thing to me and I tell them: ‘Yes, I understand, don’t worry, I’ll give you a hand too, I’ll give you a hand with the family’“.
Romito explained that ultimately the election of Rotice, whom he referred to as a “friend”, would not have been negative at all, on the contrary. “Sometimes I even said… but no because he says: if you do this, I’ll do this to you; but it doesn’t exist. I only wanted the rights, but no because he had to become mayor. I thought to myself – because if I have to tell the truth, I have to tell the truth; I thought to myself: ‘a friend goes, he can see the cards, it’s not like he has to do me a favor, he has to see the cards. Once he sees that we are right or wrong, he sees all the authorizations from the Municipality, the authorizations from the Superintendence, the sentence criminal, since he’s an engineer he has to go and read it… but it was my thought, I never told him this.”
“My brother risks an anti-mafia ban”
In November 2021 Rotice won in the runoff, a historic success for the center-right after years of Pd domination: “He comes out as mayor and everything else, we always met again at Lino’s; I asked for the meeting with Lino, also with Michele, it should have been the month of… I don’t remember if February or March, I don’t remember well. I saw them scared, they took me behind his office, from behind“.
Then Rotice to Romito: “‘The police stopped by the petrol station for you and my brother – Angelo Salvemini’s distributor, who manages his wife, I don’t know. It was me and Michele Rotice who were talking, discussing, laughing and joking, him and me. ‘The police came by and took a photo of both of you, my brother risks an anti-mafia ban’“, this was the fear expressed by the then mayor to Romito.
“Rotice told me: You are absolutely right“
“It was Michele Rotice and I who were talking. But sorry, but I have the plague and… I don’t understand why…’. ‘Yes, Michele, we mustn’t show up, this and that.’ ‘Okay, whatever you want.’ After that, Mr. Judge, Gianni Rotice, I say to him: ‘Gianni, why are you doing all this that you’re doing?’ He gives me his hand and says: ‘I’ve seen the papers, I’ve seen everything, urban planning wise you’re right’ and I swear to you on my grandchildren: ‘You are right, you have to defend yourself, your son must defend himself from the anti-mafia interdiction, if the anti-mafia interdiction goes well, as regards the situation of the municipality, the technicians… we have seen everything and you are absolutely right'” .
Salvemini’s recording
Salvemini would have entered the scene later: “Because the mayor told me: ‘You don’t have to come to me, when it’s something you’re with Michelangelo (Rotice’s nephew, ed) go to Salvemini…’ we talked about everything: administrative, this, that, always regarding the landscape authorization. I have had, I’m ashamed, I don’t even want to… All those outbursts were due solely and exclusively to this fact here but I, far be it, Mr. Judge, could have ever harmed any of those there; but not. Not even the slightest bit to think about.”
Finally, Romito spoke about some of Salvemini’s recordings which would reveal how that of “Guarda che Luna” was a more political operation than anything else, an “advert” to legitimize the administration in the eyes of the State and the voters themselves. Thus Romito: “These recordings are not on file, they must be presented to the Prosecutor’s Office; all recordings, from A to Z. I’ll explain straight away, I only heard one with my own ears, or rather two with my own ears, one concerning mayor Rotice and one Salvemini. That’s why I said ‘put these things out here’ but not because one wants to. To make the Judiciary or anyone understand, the same thing when I say go to Dia. I didn’t have to agree. He had it, Mr. Judge, he just owed it to me. He said next to Salvemini, a recording… The mayor said next to Salvemini – and there is the fact that the Santoro fact then comes out, that I am telling the truth. They meet down at the tobacco shop. What do they do? They talk, Angelo Salvemini records it and says: ‘Angelo, you have to dress as you should, that structure over there has to be dismantled’; I heard it with my own ears, that’s why that anger I had inside me. But I… Why do my children, my grandchildren, have to suffer this fact here? That’s why I mentioned the fact about the surname. ‘It must be dismantled, because if we don’t dismantle that structure; you want to do politics, I have to do politics, If you don’t dismantle that structure we can’t collect anymore n’ zippl’. In our area when someone says ‘we can’t collect any more n’ zippl’, there are many interpretations Mr. Judge. Policies, then, ‘we can’t collect any more n’ zippl’ what does that mean? If you have a monthly payment, which zippl’ more do you want to collect; these are Rotice’s words.”
