political system subjugated by the judicial one –

“I don’t want to overdramatize, it’s not Spielberg and I’m not Silvio Pellico. The place is nice, the family pampered me, but I frankly believe that the accusations, the timing, the dynamics and the imprisonment were excessive”. This is how the now former governor of Liguria Giovanni Toti spoke in an interview with Corriere della Sera about the three months spent under house arrest. Now that he is free, many have called him: “Mediaset president Fedele Confalonieri. I spoke to many, Crosetto, Donzelli, Lupi. There’s a long list”. Even Salvini, “and I thanked him for his closeness”. Toti took the notification of house arrest, last May 7, “with the fatality with which you take an accident. You know it happened to you and you try to get over it”.

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In these three months he then felt “a deep sense of injustice and a bit of impotence, even that of a political system that has allowed itself to be put very subordinate by the judicial system”. Also because, he explains, “the wiretaps show only a small piece of the scene. I found a cross-section of my life constructed, edited, directed and analyzed on the relationship with a single person, but the treatment that Spinelli received from me was the same as that of all the entrepreneurs of Liguria to whom we have always paid attention because we believe in the enterprise, whether they financed my committees or not, it did not matter”. And on the controversy over the fact that Toti went by boat to Spinelli, the former governor attacks: “This is part of the moralism of certain Italian politicians who frequent boats but point the finger at others. I have met entrepreneurs everywhere”.

“There was no agreement, no quid pro quo,” Toti insisted to the newspaper. “I have nothing against the judiciary, I have nothing against politics, which has provided tools and laws that have broken the balance of power. I have a deep respect for the institutions and I think that magistrates do their duty. After that, I think that some interpret the rules in a way that I do not agree with. I am convinced that I have not committed any crime, they think the opposite. Politics does not realize that it has lowered its immune defenses so much and that today justice has arrogated to itself a sort of moral judgment on politics. I would like the political forces to take inspiration from this affair to rethink the political system, the responsibilities of politicians, the tools of control and the financing of politics to return to giving it at least the dignity of the other powers of the State. Today I am experiencing the most serious expression of this conflict of powers.” Finally, he explains, he chose to resign because “by continuing the arm wrestling with the judiciary of Genoa we would have effectively paralyzed the presidency of the Region. Since this is an investigation with very strong political connotations, it is right that citizens express their opinion by voting”.