Pd, the farce of the ethical code copied from the 2008 one and violated countless times –

Edoardo Romagnoli

09 April 2024

The Democratic Party, overwhelmed by the vote-buying affair, from Piedmont to Puglia, is trying to relaunch itself and does so by re-presenting the same code of ethics from 2008 with some updates. The “authors” of the operation are the provincial secretaries of the party led by the senator and PD commissioner in Campania Antonio Misiani. But what does the update of the code of ethics involve? First of all, anyone who wants to represent the party in the various institutions will have to provide their criminal certificate. An article which, however, even if in other forms, already existed in the 2008 code. In fact, in paragraph A of the second point of article 3 on «Personal responsibility and political autonomy» the candidate was asked to «communicate (…) the existence of a criminal proceeding or the adoption of a preventive measure once morest him”. But the real novelty is the signing of a self-declaration in which the candidate undertakes to report any phenomena of influence on the vote; episodes of vote swapping; intimidation during the electoral campaign and attempts at corruption or extortion during the elective or administrative mandate. The application of this new Code in Campania will be entrusted by the Democratic Party to magistrate Franco Roberti, former National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor and Dem MEP, but Misiani explains that “it might very well be extended everywhere”.

The move of the code of ethics, however, has not convinced all the Dems. First of all, because the “moral question” of Bari mainly concerns the current in support of Elly Schlein which is headed by Decaro, Emiliano and Boccia. It is no coincidence that Antonio Misiani commented: «Perhaps Schlein is referring to the currents that support her». And both because it is seen as a move by the leader to centralize all the power for the composition of the lists in view of the European elections. Pina Picierno, vice-president of the European Parliament, underlined how «the candidates of the Democratic Party have always been required to present their criminal records and that the code of ethics has existed since 2008» and once more «the self-certifications, papers and cartridges, only serve to clear one’s conscience not to change things.”

Also because, if we really want to put the code into practice, in the Bari case both Maurodinoia, under investigation, and Lorusso, under house arrest, had clean criminal records. A code cannot be enough to stem the phenomenon, we need a ruling class that has control of what happens in the territories. Also because despite the code, over the years even in the Democratic Party we have seen everything and more. From Mafia Capitale, with the convictions of, among others, Mirko Coratti (5 years for corruption), Daniele Ozzimo (3 years for corruption) and Luca Odevaine (6 years for corruption). The recent Qatargate scandal involving MEP Antonio Panzeri. Or once more the affair of the Procurement of Pozzuoli with 4 big names ending up in prison including the former coordinator of Zingaretti’s secretariat Nicola Oddati and the mayor of Pozzuoli Vincenzo Figliolia. All cases that a piece of paper certainly cannot prevent.