ROME. The controversy surrounding the video with which Beppe Grillo defended his son Ciro from group rape charges does not subside, pointing the finger at the girl who had reported him. At the center, today, is Anna Macina, Undersecretary of Justice for the M5s, who in an interview with Corriere della Sera said that that of the founder of the Movement «is the cry of pain of a father. I see a lot of the human side in it. Almost nothing political ».
According to Macina “it had to be avoided. Sorry for what happened, but let’s bring it back to the private sphere and leave politics out ». Which instead, according to her, the woman’s defense lawyer would not have done: “It is not clear whether Bongiorno speaks as a defender or as a senator”, stressing that it would be serious, she later says, to use the story for political purposes.
Giulia Bongiorno’s reply this morning was immediate and hard: «After Grillo’s choice to make accusations against the victim’s family and the prosecutor’s office, today Undersecretary of Justice Macina launches into imaginative, very serious accusations against me. Moved by the culture of suspicion (towards enemies) that characterizes the 5 Star Movement, Undersecretary Macina seriously damages my image as a human being, even before being a lawyer, by trying to insinuate that I have disclosed to anyone the acts of the trial ” . The senator also recalled that she has been dealing with “violence against women for decades as everyone knows. I took up this position a year after the denunciation that gave rise to the investigation and I have never spoken to anyone about this proceeding despite numerous and pressing requests from journalists. Undersecretary Macina will have to answer for these raving statements in court ».
The League is ready to ask for his immediate resignation, defining Macina’s words as “very serious, insulting and unworthy insinuations of a member of the government”. And then: “To hypothesize that Senator Salvini has seen the video of Ciro Grillo through the lawyer Giulia Bongiorno is unacceptable: the embarrassment of the M5s for such a serious affair involving the family of their founder is not a good reason to tarnish Salvini and Bongiorno. Salvini will act against the undersecretary in all civil and criminal offices ».
Enrico Costa, deputy and responsible for Justice of Action, asks for his removal via Twitter: “Minister Cartabia, who has made secrecy his style, throws it out on the spot.” And it is to him who replies the president of the Justice Committee of the Chamber Mario Perantoni, also of the M5S: “I see no reason that can justify the clearly instrumental attacks by Enrico Costa on Undersecretary Anna Macina for the completely legitimate questions and doubts that exhibits in an interview. I express my solidarity and my support ». Meanwhile, while the defense is firm from the 5S, other voices within the government are lining up against, from Forza Italia Italia Viva.