why that law should be abolished –

Dario Martini

August 20, 2024

The first to speak yesterday morning was Giovanni Toti, the former governor of Liguria forced to resign, the only way out of house arrest that lasted over 80 days. And he decided to address the case involving Arianna Meloni, the sister of the prime minister who, according to an editorial by the director of Il Giornale Alessandro Sallusti, could be investigated for influence peddling after the publication of some articles on her alleged interest in the appointments of Rai and Trenitalia. “The reaction of the parties astonishes me,” Toti wrote on Facebook. “Arianna Meloni is accused, by politicians for now, and we’ll see if also by the judiciary, of having been involved in appointments and designations at the top of state-owned companies. But that’s the point! Excuse me, but who should appoint the top of those companies if not the person who won the elections?”

Everything revolves around this type of crime. Influence peddling, precisely. Many have been calling for its abolition for a long time. Because it is no mystery that most of the time it turns out to be a flop: with acquittals that inevitably mark the end of very long trials.
But no one compensates those who have been accused of this crime for years and politicians are often irreparably crippled. Just to name a few, the most well-known case is that of Tiziano Renzi, Matteo’s father, investigated by the Rome Prosecutor’s Office on this charge, and acquitted after years. Italo Bocchino, a former deputy of An, investigated in the same case, was also acquitted. But there is also Beppe Grillo, investigated for relations with the shipowner Vincenzo Onorato, for whom the Milan Prosecutor’s Office requested the case be shelved last June. Tommaso Foti (FdI) was acquitted, while Gianluca Gemelli, partner of the then Minister of Development Federica Guidi who was forced to resign, was shelved.

Giovanni Toti, still referring to the Arianna Meloni affair, puts everyone in front of the problem: “Excuse me, but who should appoint the top management of those companies if not the head of the political secretariat of the party that won the elections? We live in a democracy! Does the voters’ opinion count or does it count for nothing?”. So the former governor proposes to change the law that “prevents politics from doing its job” and that Parliament “guiltily” approved, “so there will be no investigations to be outraged about”. Meanwhile, the controversy continued, with Italia Viva defending itself, claiming it had nothing to do with the alleged conspiracy involving Arianna: “The ghosts of the Meloni sisters do not scare Iv, I am a victim of the Palamara system, not the instigator”. Renzi ended up at the center of the controversy after Maria Elena Boschi and Raffaela Paita had asked the prime minister’s sister to clarify the alleged interference in the appointments.

But yesterday was also the day of the descent into the dispute of the National Association of Magistrates: «What is underway is yet another attack on the judiciary, aimed at delegitimizing it by overshadowing alleged conspiracies. A dangerous exercise that weakens the republican institutions and damages the entire country». A position to which the Undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro of FdI decides to respond: «The tough position taken by the ANM against Sallusti’s article on Arianna Meloni is surprising. Sallusti reported true and incontrovertible data regarding the unfounded insinuations and slander fueled by the left and certain journalism. In the same way, Sallusti recalled that in other times, such news was given not to tell a fact, but to determine another. The conclusions of Fratelli d’Italia on these days are clear: it is necessary to stop trying to pull the judiciary by the jacket. A reaffirmation of the independence of the judiciary that no one should complain about».