The largest investigation by the Genoese prosecutor’s office then arose from the La Spezia area, which opened another Pandora’s box of alleged bribes and gifts, bringing the president of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti and the former head of the System Authority under house arrest. port of the western Ligurian Sea Paolo Emilio Signorini.
Another heavy accusation also hangs over Matteo Cozzani in this second line of Genoese investigation. According to the investigating judge of Genoa, when he was still mayor of Porto Venere, on the occasion of the regional elections of 20 and 21 September 2020, he promised jobs and new housing to the Riesi community of Genoa, close to the Cammarata clan of the Riesi district, in change of votes for Toti’s list. For this reason he is also charged with the crime of electoral corruption in order to facilitate Cosa Nostra.
The aims of real estate developers and politicians on the island of Palmaria
But let’s go back to this small island, Palmaria, just two square kilometers in size, which with the islets Tino and Tinetto forms an archipelago at the mouth of the Gulf of La Spezia. Still wild, beautiful island, with paths that can only be explored on foot, a destination for trips out of town for people from La Spezia and for local tourism with little impact. It is located within the regional natural park of Porto Venere, a special conservation area of the Natura 2000 network and a UNESCO site. Historically, also due to its position, it was an outpost of the Navy.
Among the Mediterranean scrub, the cliffs and splendid caves on the sea, the ruins of forts and military batteries emerge. The Palmaria island is an obligatory passage for many species of migratory birds and for thirty years it was home to one of the most important in Italy. However, the presence of the landscape restriction (legislative decree no. 42/2004 and subsequent amendments) and other environmental restrictions (natural park, site of community importance, etc.) have not quelled the appetites of real estate developers and politicians who favored them.
The sack of Palmaria
In 2017 it was decided to transfer the real estate from the Ministry of Defense to the State Property Agency and, finally, to the Municipality of Porto Venere. The associations asked that the island be preserved intact, and that its vocation remain solely naturalistic and free to be used.But it wasn’t like that. In 2017 the regional council declared the island a strategic area and in 2019 it approved the master plan on Palmaria. Toti publicly declared that he would transform Palmaria into the Capri of Liguria.
«It ensured that there would be no consumption of land because the existing volumes of the former military structures would be used, but it would still have distorted the face of the island, because all those military structures were now covered with vegetation or underground. Making them resurface, creating access roads, merging volumes, meant a pouring of luxury concrete and light pollution on a still intact island», explains Fabio Giacomazzi, activist of Legambiente La Spezia. «Swithout counting the large portions of land put up for sale and effectively privatized, when now the island is mostly public and usable by all».
A bathing establishment with swimming pools in a delicate and protected ecosystem
The Paletti brothers, owners of the Grand Hotel in Porto Venere, had meanwhile purchased the land of the former Carlo Alberto quarry on the island. And a project was presented, with their company Palmaria Experience, to make us a bathing establishment with two swimming pools.
As can be read from the investigating judge’s statement, «the mayor, in a context of constant contact, information and advice with the entrepreneurs Paletti Raffaele and Mirko, undertook to facilitate in every way the construction of a bathing establishment in the area of the former Cava Carlo Alberto, on the Palmaria island, even through acts contrary to the law».
«It was then that the sack of the island of Palmaria began», recalls Giacomazzi, one of the first to report it. «The Municipality’s urban plan was not respected, as was the park plan, which did not include swimming pools. Indeed, he said that the Cava Carlo Alberto area had to be made safe and had to be free to access. Both of these plans were literally and quickly bent to the builders’ wishes».
Palmaria, the alleged irregularities reported by Legambiente
In the meantime, the Municipality, manager of the natural park, had renounced exercising the right of pre-emption in the purchase of the former quarry because it did not consider it to be in the public interest. In fact, from the interceptions emerge the dialogues between Cozzani and Paletti during which the two seem to agree on the necessary council resolution. Legambiente appealed to the President of the Republic, because this decision had been taken not by the municipal council, as the law would require, but by the municipal council.
«Then there were other irregularities. We had made a complaint at the beginning of the work, as that was a special conservation area, as the projects must be subjected to an impact assessment. But, for example, the use of a pontoon with crane in close proximity to the seagrass meadow had not been evaluated», continues Giacomazzi.
Again according to the investigating judge, «according to Cozzani himself, with the building permit in hand, the area was worth three times its purchase price».
The mayor then requested the favorable opinion of the superintendency: «The superintendent now gives a positive opinion, because otherwise I will call the superintendent now and ask her» the mayor said furiously to the municipal offices.
As the Legambiente activist recalls, «the entire Services Conference took place in the dark from the public, without communicating it on the institutional websites. We had to contact the ombudsman who intervened reminding the Municipality of Porto Venere of its duties regarding public information».
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The investigating judge’s accusations: favors and ad hoc notices
According to the accusation, mayor Cozzani also favored the Palettis for other businesses: from the padel courts to the former Ravecca school transformed into an annex of the Grand Hotel, with a tender tailor-made for them. Again as reported in the investigating judge’s statement, in exchange the Palettis would have offered dinners, overnight stays and tickets to the Formula One Grand Prix to the mayor’s friends.
They also promised to help the commercial expansion of the company of the mayor’s brother, Filippo Cozzani, a brick water entrepreneur. The latter was even invited to be part of the project for the construction and management of the Palmaria bathing establishment. Among those under investigation was also Michele Denegri, a Turin entrepreneur who wanted to build swimming pools on the islet. The accusation against him is that of bid rigging: he allegedly made an agreement with the mayor to purchase the land.
