The hall of Palazzo Madama approves, with 167 votes in favor, 76 against and no abstention the report of the Immunity Council on the Open case involving the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi, under investigation for illegal financing. In essence, a conflict of attribution to the Constitutional Court is raised against the magistrates of Florence who would have included in the investigation dossier, chats and emails from when Renzi was already a senator, therefore, according to the voted report, they should first have requested a formal authorization to the Senate. «This conflict – said Renzi in his report presented after that of the Giunta – has nothing to do with the personal position of the accused. Nothing changes in the process that concerns me. But a battle of political civilization is being played out on this issue ». And he stressed that «here we are not talking about Leopolda, but about the Senate of the Republic, here we are not talking about the foundation but about the constitution, the question is whether in this country article 68 of the constitution is still in force or no longer valid. For the credibility of the institutions, this is a day in which we must read things the right way, not the other way around ».
Open, Renzi: “No attack, but prosecutors didn’t respect the rules”
For the Florentine senator, “the papers” were “illegitimately acquired by the Florentine prosecutor. Not because a deputy says so, but because the Court of Cassation says so with 5 sentences that have annulled the measures requested. The Court of Cassation says that documents have been illegally acquired that should not have been acquired ». Therefore, “those who think that we are attacking the judiciary here are ashamed, we respect them. We ask that politics deal with reality, without any attack on the judiciary ».
Renzi reiterated that «the investigation does not want to question the money, whose traceability no one doubts, they are all reclaimed. There is no transparency problem. The investigation starts from the assumption that a judge decides what a current is, how it should be organized, and a criminal judge thinks he can do it “. «Where – said the leader of IV – a criminal judge intervenes in the organizational dynamics of politics does not affect the concept of separation of powers and the freedom of parliament to establish the rules of politics. The prosecutors are determined as the new organizing secretaries of the parties. In democracies it is not a judge who defines what a party is and what is not ».
Regarding the implications of the affair, Renzi said that “politics is important but life is more important, this life was fed to a sensational press campaign. I wish you that what happened to me does not happen: no one is allowed to rape lives ». Because, he explained, “the point of the dispute is not the method of that judiciary”, but the fact is that “the law is the same for everyone”. If a “citizen, who can afford it, decides”, above all for political reasons, to denounce some judges and “draws the attention of other fellow magistrates” this is “a gesture of civility”, it is not a “subversive act” .
The former prime minister then turned to the press, attacking the way he relates to the judiciary. “We defend the freedom of information, but he cannot see us silently in front of a paper from the power of attorney that is worth more than a sentence of the Supreme Court. It is unthinkable that news without criminal relevance will be published on the front page. If the press gives up the role of democratic guardian, populism also wins because of the lack of accountability on the part of the press ”.
The clash with the magistrates
Last week Renzi had had fiery words against the magistrates after the Florence prosecutor had advanced the request for indictment for him and 10 other suspects including Maria Elena Boschi and Luca Lotti.
Open case, Anm: “Renzi’s attacks unacceptable” but the leader of Italia Viva raises the bar: “For prosecutors, mine is a gangster family, they unhinged my life”
Last Wednesday Renzi decided to go on the attack by signing a criminal complaint against the Florence prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo, the adjunct Luca Turco and the prosecutor Antonino Nastasi, the magistrates who, in the investigation into the Open Foundation, asked for the referral to judgment for the leader and other protagonists of the former “magic lily” (Maria Elena Boschi, Luca Lotti, Alberto Bianchi and Marco Carrai). “I will respond blow for blow with the weapons of law,” the leader of IV had said. Words that the ANM did not like as “they go beyond the boundaries of legitimate criticism and aim to de-legitimize in the eyes of public opinion the magistrates who deal with the proceedings against him”, wrote the Central Executive Board of the Magistrates Association.
The positions of the parties
«For Fdi the Constitution is sacred. We share the rapporteur’s conclusions and believe that the prosecutors of Florence have violated Article 68 out of the question. The rule is very clear. We will vote in favor of the report by the Modena rapporteur and we hope that the whole House will say that the rules must be respected ”, announced the Melonian senator Alberto Balboni.
The Democratic Party in the Senate Chamber will vote in favor of the report of the Giunta for Immunities, on the conflict of attribution against the Florentine prosecutors for the case of the Open Foundation, which involves the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi, under investigation for illegal financing. It is learned at the end of the presidency of the dem group in the Senate. According to the report of the Giunta, the messages exchanged on WhatsApp in 2018, when Renzi was a senator, must be considered as if they were correspondence: for this reason the magistrates should have asked for prior authorization before acquiring them.
While the Five Star Movement «will vote against, but not against Renzi, against a single senator, but because we defend the values and principles of the M5s. There are no requirements to ask for an attribution conflict, ”said Giuseppe Conte. And Liberi e Uguali will also vote against.
The League will vote in favor of the report of the junta for immunities that has resolved for the conflict of attribution regarding the Open case involving Matteo Renzi. It is learned from Northern League sources. Matteo Salvini then explained that “I am not for or against Matteo Renzi, I do not know the papers of the trial and therefore I do not judge the trials of others. However, I consider it unworthy to have read the bank statements of an Italian citizen or the letter from a father to a son in the newspapers. It is unworthy of a civilized country to read, and someone should pay for this mistake. I don’t know what Renzi is saying in the Senate now, he separates me from him if not everything, very much, but I will never fight him with the judiciary ».