Liguria. “There has never been any intervention from me regarding the duration of the concession, furthermore developed by the technical offices of the Port Authority without any interference from the Region and the duration of thirty years is considered fair by the offices, but is also considered fair by the former Public Prosecutor Francesco Cozzi, as reported in the Corriere della Sera interview of May 12th”. The president of the Liguria Region defends himself, also citing the recent statements of the former prosecutor of Genoa (who has returned to the forefront of the news because consultancy for the Spinelli group emerged from the documents after he retired from the judiciary). Giovanni Toti (here the full version of the defense brief).
He knows this in the 17 pages of defense statement (given to the press at the end of today’s interrogation) from one of the main accusations that led to his arrest for corruption, because according to the prosecutors it would have facilitated (through pressure on the president of the Port Paolo Signorini and on the member of the port committee appointed by the Region Andrea La Mattina), different ‘practices’ starting from the thirty-year renewal of the Bulk Terminal to the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli in exchange for funding for the electoral campaigns. The governor
“I have never participated in the technical meetings held, on the one hand, to examine the concession, on the other to link the various activities: bulk cargo, bunker, burial – says Toti – Porto and Commissioner Bucci participate in these meetings, the only institutions directly involved . The only direct intervention with Commissioner La Mattina ends, according to La Mattina’s own interceptions, in an examination of the future of the Port as an eminent public interest of the city. Without any pressure as explicitly stated by La Mattina himself.”
Toti maintains that he did not exert any pressure on Giorgio Carozzi (who represented the Municipality of Genoa on the port committee): “The alleged pressures, the alleged interests and relationships reported by the intercepted words of Carozzi, statements which are otherwise wavering and often contradictory, are evidently the result of hearsay or reported opinions”. And he reiterates: “I have never intervened directly on the merits of the documents being prepared nor on the assessments carried out by the competent bodiesI have never attended the meetings between the Commissioner, the Port and the parties involved”.
He says he always has preserved “an institutional balance” without intervening “directly or at the technical meetings or in any direct or indirect world on the two representatives of the port committee appointed by the mayors of Savona and Genoa”. “My intervention was limited to obtaining information about the state of the situation, to advocating for an agreement that was as fair as possible between the parties involved, in order to avoid serious damage to the city’s interests.”
And also on the reaching of the agreement between Gianluigi Aponte and Aldo Spinelli at the end of 2022, after the former had threatened to go to court Toti says that “my action must be considered in its factual reality as an activity aimed at pursuing the primary interest of the port”.
