GENOA – Responding to the almost 200 questions that the investigators asked him, Giovanni Toti, suspended president of Liguria, also spoke about his relationship with the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli, first of all admitting that he had frequented the boat docked at the fair “several times”, which the owner used to meet people. Turning instead to the alleged favors that the governor allegedly gave to the 90 piece of the port of Genoa, the concession to Spinelli of the Punta dell’Olmo beach, in Celle Ligure, ended up under the lens of the Prosecutor’s Office. On this point Toti stated: “It’s possible that we talked about it, I don’t remember but it’s possible.” And again: “My position was that the claim, if compliant with the law, could be supported, but now, having had knowledge of the documents (I am referring to the reading of the newspapers published after my arrest), I was able to reconstruct that the opinion of the technicians had been negative”.
When Spinelli returned to office, Toti returned to knock on the door of the technicians and yesterday, invited to clarify how, he replied to the prosecutors: “One way could be to verify the number of free beaches and thus be able to give a positive response through that road” . In short, the fact that the beach was given as a concession to Spinelli “was my hope”, said Toti, to whom the magistrates however pointed out that in the phone calls he used “assertive” terms: “it is necessary” and “it will become a concession”. Another chapter addressed that of the thirty-year concession, again to Spinelli, of the bulk terminal in the port of Genoa. A practice that Toti worked to close as soon as possible, also turning to the then president of the port authority Paolo Emilio Signorini. Why? “Leaving it (the concession) open would have caused tension among the port operators and would have fueled journalistic controversy that was negative for me,” said Toti. However, he ruled out there was a correlation between the concession of the terminal (which belongs to the port authority) and the financing of his electoral campaign. “There is no correlation because he (Spinelli, ed.) has been financing me for a long time. Then he is someone who always tries, he reminds you every time if you can do something for him.”
