“The investigation doesn’t add up and arrives close to the European elections: so people will no longer go to vote. In a democratic system it is dangerous to think that any institution, from the region to the government, could fall with an arrest warrant”, he says the former minister and current mayor of Imperia
The arrest of Giovanni Toti “discredits politics with a capital P”, Claudio Scajola tells Il Foglio. “The investigation doesn’t add up, it hurts all the institutions and comes close to the European elections: so people won’t go to vote anymore”. And the power vacuum that is opening up in Liguria? “I have already given, I fight for the Europeanism of Forza Italia”. Maybe not the only one. “FdI in the EPP? Meloni is moving well.”
There were Forcist overtones and political differences between Toti and Scajola. “We have been distant for a long time,” acknowledges the mayor of Imperia. Yet today he uses the word pain three times. “I repeat it. The pain when you learn that someone you work with has been arrested. The pain for a person I consider good and honest. But above all, as a man of the institutions, the pain of an exacerbating scenario: some blame the judiciary on the one hand, some blame corrupt politics on the other. This debate hurts everyone, whatever you think.” And it comes less than a month before the elections. “Many aspects don’t convince me. If these are charges related to the three-year period 2020-22, I regret the old code, when investigations had a maximum time to be carried out. Now, however, they keep people in check. They are interminable, yet they cannot wait twenty more days: such procedures only lead to the discredit of public opinion and therefore their distancing from the vote. You understand my questions.”
Scajola’s empathy comes from experience. He had 14 legal proceedings against him: only one conviction in first instance. For the rest, acquittals, dismissals, prescriptions. “Let’s be careful not to fall into yet another media trial”, the warning of the former minister. “Reading certain articles it seems that Toti intervened to enrich his assets. It is not so. Yet the titles suggest this, not the transfers to his committee. Declared transfers, mind you”. There are those who couldn’t wait to shout about the new Tangentopoli. And there are those who relaunch, like Scajola. “How can you think that electoral campaigns don’t have costs? Then a problem arises: we have to return to public financing of parties. And provide legislative clarity on what is lawful and what is unlawful, without leaving discretion to individual magistrates.”
Whether it is corruption or regular financing, justice will establish it. But it will take time. And in the meantime, Toti’s mandate seems doomed. “I don’t know what his next moves will be,” continues the mayor. “But in a democratic system it is dangerous to think that any institution, from the region to the government, could fall with an arrest warrant”. In the event of a vacancy, can the Ligurian centre-right think of Scajola? “What I gave I gave, what I had I got, what I suffered I suffered. Since I am a convinced pro-European, what I still try to do is support Forza Italia in this direction”, being the first to sign, together with Antonio Tajani, the manifesto that places civicism in support of the party. “Right now there is a need for a stronger Italy, in a stronger Europe”. Scajola played a crucial role in Forzi’s entry into the EPP almost thirty years ago. Could it soon be FdI’s turn too? “We are still in a transition phase: I appreciate Giorgia’s hard work. As was Berlusconi’s ambition, however, it will be necessary to bring together the things that unite and people with quality.” Are there any among the Melonians? “Let’s stop here for now.”
Francesco Gottardi
