the version that changes everything –

Piero Fassino, deputy of the Democratic Party and former Minister of Justice, was reported for the attempted theft of a 100 euro perfume in a duty free shop at Fiumicino airport. The news was reconstructed by Il Fatto Quotidiano and the episode occurred on 15 April. Fassino, the newspaper writes, was waiting for a plane to Strasbourg where he was to participate in the work of the Italian delegation at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. After passing the checks, he stopped at the duty free, where he bought a women’s perfume worth over 100 euros: “I wanted to buy it for my wife”, he specified. At that moment, according to the reconstruction provided by the same dem parliamentarian, the cell phone rang: “Having the trolley in one hand and the cell phone in the other, not having three hands yet, I simply placed the perfume package in the pocket of the jacket, in waiting to go to the checkout”.

Here, however, writes il Fatto, a discrepancy between the versions emerges: the newspaper understands that at that point Fassino would have moved away beyond the tills, which triggered the anti-shoplifting alarm. According to what the former minister reported, however, it was precisely his gesture of placing the product in his jacket that gave strength, writes Il Fatto, to the zeal of the security guard who blocked him. A new detail emerges. According to Repubblica, the videos from the video surveillance cameras deny Fassino’s version. An accredited source, who had the opportunity to see those images, reconstructed what happened like this: “You see the MEP going straight to the women’s perfume stand, dragging a trolley, wearing a dark jacket. He takes a 100 ml pack of Chanel Chance (price 130 euros, ed.). He raises his eyes in the direction of the cameras, looks around, goes into a corner and puts the perfume in a pocket of his jacket. He leaves the duty free without purchasing anything and is approached by a private security guard.”