(beraking newest information) – The interrogation of the Ligurian governor Giovanni Toti, who has been underneath home arrest since May seventh for corruption, lasted 8 hours. Starting at 11am he answered the questions of the prosecutors answerable for the investigation which brought on an earthquake in native politics, rejecting all of the accusations. “In my political profession I’ve at all times pursued the general public curiosity which is the only real and supreme purpose of my political motion”, is likely one of the passages of the reminiscence handed over to the prosecutors throughout the interrogation, wherein he underlines how each euro was used for politics”.
A public curiosity “continually claimed by the political program of the bulk that helps me, not by opposition to the calls for of personal people, however slightly by the conveyance of those in the direction of the curiosity of the neighborhood and the territory, the best way wherein the perfect essence of the general public curiosity” explains governor Toti within the 17-page memorandum. “The beacon of our political motion sees personal exercise not as a egocentric issue to be counteracted however as a useful resource which, left to develop in compliance with the foundations, represents an added worth for the neighborhood as a main factor of social and financial improvement”. The accusatory system, which analyzes “solely a really restricted a part of the relationships between the administration, the president, and the world of labor and enterprise” doesn’t give the correct image of Toti. “All my actions (even these contested) have been impressed, actually by the correct consideration in the direction of corporations working within the space, however with the only real perspective of defending the collective curiosity and its progress”.
For Toti, all companies have been handled with the identical consideration, “within the absolute postulate that each entrepreneurial initiative, so long as it isn’t in battle with the legal guidelines or codified market guidelines, may be thought of of public curiosity, bringing wealth and work, instantly and not directly”.
“I’ve by no means exceeded the precise competences of the our bodies and places of work in cost, I’ve by no means interfered within the free selections and selections of the topics concerned, I’ve by no means put stress on any topic, I’ve by no means served a selected curiosity to the detriment of the collective one”, is one other passage of reminiscence. “Never has this consideration expressed itself in overcoming or modifying the opinion of its personal places of work or the investigations of third-party our bodies, such because the port authority places of work. My intervention on the political/purposeful degree has at all times been strictly restricted to the authorization path traced by the related places of work in each area, limiting itself to asking for consideration per the wants of market pace, or to hold out the works requested by the opposite administrative and authorities our bodies (port, Mayor Bucci’s Commissioner buildings) or to solicit, throughout the administrative paths and legislative, the diligence and a focus of the Ligurian Municipalities in implementing regional strategic plans”, provides Toti.
“My political motion has at all times been aimed toward defending the dignity and status of the Region and its establishments”, “each intervention in favor of financial initiatives has been public” and “even each donation of cash is finished with most transparency”, the Ligurian governor writes once more. Among the costs, the precise transfers to the political committees are contested, however the president of the Liguria Region defends himself: “Every donation of cash was credited with traceable strategies and accounted for. Likewise all of the bills incurred (each in help of my exercise politics as chief of the Toti listing current within the Regional Council and in lots of municipal administrations, each to help mayors, lists and candidates related and per the political line of the Toti listing, and with regard to the initiatives of the federal government coalition) have been reported and publicized by way of the legislation and past. The budgets and studies have been (and nonetheless are) printed on the web sites of the political organizations in my help”.
“Every euro collected had a political vacation spot: no contribution produced private enrichment or utility for me, for others belonging to my social gathering or for personal third events” remarked Toti. “And exactly to dispel each minimal potential suspicion and assure most transparency and risk of management, explicit consideration was paid to separating each financial side of my personal life from any financial exercise linked to politics, a lot in order to additionally separate private present accounts and use for political exercise solely devoted and ‘clear’ accounts, with crediting and spending instruments tracked, traceable and at all times rigorously documented”, states the governor.
“The absence of any connection between cash donations and my political consideration to problems with public curiosity” may be demonstrated by cross-referencing my agenda with the reporting of the reported funds. “In this fashion – we learn within the memorandum delivered to the prosecutors of Genoa – it is going to be clear that the eye and dedication I’ve proven within the insurance policies of listening and lawful facilitation of personal investments has been completely disconnected from any contribution obtained”. “The exercise of supporting and listening to personal initiatives didn’t have as its prerequisite or purpose that of political or private closeness or, even, the presence of a contribution (even when it was respectable in all respects); the one motive for my motion is was to assist personal initiative to make Liguria develop”, he underlines.
In the identical means, he writes, “I’ve by no means felt indebted to those that had contributed to my political initiative: the very fact of being a contributor or in any case politically shut has by no means represented a qualification for receiving favors or preferential remedy on my half; nor has there ever been any perspective of mine that might in any means give rise to such a thought”.
The Genoa prosecutor’s workplace “erroneously” interprets the transfers made by the entrepreneur Aldo Spinelli and doesn’t do not forget that the primary donation from the Spinelli group “to the political campaigns of my social gathering dates again to the primary electoral marketing campaign (2015) after I was not but governor and sure they occurred over time with cadences linked, if something, to the political occasions of the Region (municipal, regional elections or numerous occasions) and never linked to particular financial conditions or the co-presence of occasions of curiosity to Spinelli”, Toti continues.
Therefore, bearing in mind the very long time span, 9 years, “we are able to simply deduce the absence of any apply of contextuality between requests for ‘consideration’ from a donor and solicitation of fabric help for political exercise”. For Toti “actually the administration’s exact coverage of consideration to the wants of companies and residents has an affect on the development of the animus with which the donation takes place, however the presumption of particular utilities linked to a single and particular scenario actually doesn’t have an effect, much less lower than acts contra legem”. Not solely that: “By recording every fee, not solely by the receiving Toti Committee, but additionally by the corporate or the donor, it seems clear that the donor himself under no circumstances considers his donation of cash as a commodity of change or fee of a illicit curiosity, an exercise that even he himself would take it upon himself to denounce by publicizing the fee” concludes Toti.
“In coping with Aldo Spinelli, I got interested within the points he raised in a means that was typically disconnected from the context and completely alien to the spirit of the dialog, by an intervention at all times dictated by the spirit of public utility and infrequently even in battle with the pursuits of Spinelli himself however in favor – in truth – of different operators”, he provides.
For instance, the president of the Liguria Region studies, “there has by no means been any intervention on my half relating to the length of the concession, which was additionally drawn up by the technical places of work of the Port Authority with none interference from the Region”. In the precautionary custody order and from the investigation papers it emerges, Toti claims, “that I intervened not solely in opposition to Spinelli, but additionally in opposition to all the opposite operators concerned”. In all circumstances “my motion should be thought of in its factual actuality as an exercise aimed toward pursuing the first curiosity of the port” provides Toti. The Spinelli challenge, which included luxurious lodging with related catering and leisure companies and an adjoining luxurious lodge, “didn’t obtain any particular preferential remedy. On the opposite, it is very important underline that the seashore in query remains to be a free seashore, an indication that my consideration was restricted to mere curiosity within the prospects obtainable by legislation to assist funding, within the public curiosity”, concludes the Ligurian governor.
“I gained the elections with round 380 thousand votes. The help of the Riesina neighborhood takes the shape, within the investigations, with a sure approximation, of 400 votes, only for proportion and to know that the contribution will not be comparable to to disturb the democratic stability of the vote”, he writes once more. “The Testa brothers have been offered as political activists with positions within the Lombardy Region by two honorable members. In their CV there have been political positions linked to the Lombardy Regional Council” and “the very fact of being from Riese and their representatives can’t be equal to being thought of as individuals of malfeasance”, provides the president of the Liguria Region who rejects the accusation of vote swapping and underlines that he has met the Testa brothers “at most twice”. For Toti, “on the finish of an extended reconstruction, no particular profit went to the Riesina neighborhood, neither in jobs nor in any other case. Since they have been dealing, as may be seen from the identical investigations, with individuals who have been insistent on their conduct and expressions, it’s potential that some jokes even between me and employees have been taken out of context.”
“The investigation system has shortcomings and errors” particularly, relating to port points, comparable to bunker, Concenter decreasing tomb and bulk terminal. “None of the paperwork are ready with my lively participation nor with that of my places of work. All the proposals got here from third events and have been processed and evaluated by the places of work based on the phrases of the legislation”, she claims.
In explicit, the length of the Bulk Terminal concession “was decided by the places of work based on regulatory and operational standards” and “the necessities for filling the hauls are purposeful to the developments of the port, deliberate by the Port Authority”, the proposal to assign the Enel bunker to the Spinelli group “was ready by the Port Authority places of work and never topic to both administrative or technical analysis by the Region places of work”. In this sense, “it’s clear that my intervention on the occasions didn’t concern the acts themselves and their high quality, however was a easy work of mediation and solicitation for the belief of a purely public curiosity”.
“With regards to the dialogue on the longer term port grasp plan, having famous that regional competences don’t pertain to the planning section however to the following authorization section, I think about it applicable to specify that the dialogue exercise has been continually carried out with all the topics of the port neighborhood, with out favoritism and any partiality. As could possibly be seen from a mere studying of the paperwork, dialogue has by no means been a selected prerogative, a lot much less unique, of the Spinelli group”.