Renato Chisso, the former regional transport councilor of the Veneto region, arrested in 2014 in the MOSE scandal, he will get his annuity back. Not all of it, but about four fifths, yes. Arrears and revaluations included. Thanks to his lawyer, Maurizio Paniz from Belluno, former deputy of the Republic for three legislatures, who, incidentally, he also managed to cancel the annuity cuts of his former parliamentary colleagues, 350 senators and 650 deputies. The judiciary has nothing to do with this, it was the year 2018, the president of the council of ministers was Giuseppe Conte of the M5s. Six years later, the backlash. And the arrears to be repaid.
Chisso will get his annuity back
Let’s start from Chisso. On 4 June 2014 the MOSE scandal broke out, there were arrests and illustrious people arrested. Among these, the regional councilor of Forza Italia Renato Chisso, accused of corruption. He will serve a sentence of two years and 22 days between prison in Pisa and house arrest. The confiscation of two million euros is included in the plea agreement. And it is by virtue of that provision that six years later, on 21 September 2022, the soldiers of the economic-financial police unit of the Financial Police of Venice knocked on the door of the Region and transformed the confiscation order of 332,287 euros against the former councillor. Money that the regional council should have given him as an annuity and that the former councilor does not see: all confiscated. Now that money will have to be returned to him. Paniz explains: «When Chisso came to talk to me about the fact that he didn’t have a cent, I said: but how, you’re entitled to the share of the annuity! The Supreme Court of Cassation and the Constitutional Court, even accepting my appeals, have repeatedly established that the annuity, both national and regional, is a pension. And being a pension accrued following the payment of the portion of the contributions paid by the worker, the worker himself has the right to have a part of it. The total seizure was inconceivable.” This is how Paniz appealed to the execution judge of the Venice court and the judge of the preliminary investigations, Dr. Daniela Defazio, on 27 February last, accepted him, reformed the order of 12 June 2023 and ordered that the annuity due from the Veneto Region to Renato Chisso is seized and confiscated within the limits established by article 545, paragraph 7, of the code of civil procedure. In practice, only a fifth of the annuity, if not less, is confiscable. The Region has not yet returned the money to its former councilor, but it is a matter of little time. How much money are we talking about? For those in arrears – says Paniz – «a few hundred thousand euros, plus interest, revaluation and obviously the monthly annuity for the portion not susceptible to seizure”. It is the first case in Italy, the lawyer points out, of an annuity seized and returned. And others, such as the former governor of Veneto Giancarlo Galan, will easily be able to do the same.
The other appeals
As regards the annuities of parliamentarians, the cut was ordered in 2018 by the presidential offices of the Chamber and the Senate which, with the strong push of the M5s, had applied the contributory system. A reform that had passed in the Senate without the votes of Forza Italia, the Democratic Party and the Brothers of Italy who had left at the time of the vote, with the M5s and the League instead in favour. Six years later it turns out that those cuts have been cut, around a thousand former parliamentarians who relied on Paniz. «It was said – Paniz remarks – that it was an adjustment to the contributory system, but it was only a decoy, so much so that Pasquale Tridico himself, former president of the INPS and now candidate for the European elections with the M5s, denied that statement ». Around a thousand appeals were presented by Paniz on behalf of 350 senators and 650 deputies with tortuous and long procedures involving first instance, second instance and appeals to the Constitutional Court. How did it end? «For all former senators, that cut was declared totally illegitimate and they recovered everything, including arrears». There was a first sentence in 2020, in 2021 a partial sentence of the second degree, in 2022 it reached the Constitutional Court and at the beginning of 2023 the final sentence which – Paniz points out – was not further challenged. As far as the Chamber is concerned, to date partial sentences have been issued whereby approximately 40 percent of the former deputies have received everything, another 30 percent have received a part of the annuities that had been reduced and the remaining 30 percent – after the discussion on January 31st – he is awaiting sentence. «I also appealed for around twenty former European parliamentarians whose annuities at the time depended on the conditions of the individual states: in this case the European Parliament had to pay the costs of both levels of judgement».
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Read the full article at
The Gazzettino
