Melons: "If the Delmastro case spreads, justice will take its course"

Non and plate la controversy over the Undersecretary of Justice, Andrea Delmastroexponent of FdI, after the news of having given birth to one company together with the daughter of a mafia convictwhich would be affiliated with the Sienese clan. The undersecretary rejected the accusations and defended himself by claiming to have dedicated his entire life and career to the fight against organized crime, but his position remains at the center of the storm, with the opposition continuing to call for his resignation.

Meloni intervenes on the ‘case’

The Prime Minister first made it clear from Brussels that there is no possibility of Delmastro’s resignation on the table. Then she returns to the issue: the prime minister does not exclude that the whole affair may have been artfully brought up a few days after the vote on the referendum on the separation of magistrates’ careers, while acknowledging that the undersecretary was “light-hearted”.

Words that provoke a harsh reaction from the opposition

During the special on the referendum on La 7, the prime minister explains: “I will speak with Delmastro, with whom I have not yet been able to speak. After that I will look at the facts that we know now and that I know from the press, and I don’t know who the press knows them from”. Think about a little hand? She is asked. “No, I don’t know, I don’t care, these are things that sometimes happen. But in short, I may have taken it into account here too. If there was a little hand, would it mean that this is the worst thing we have about the government of the Italian Republic? This fact? Well, it’s interesting. Because what does Delmastro’s incident say?

It says – says the Prime Minister – that there is an Undersecretary of State who buys the shares of a restaurant with members with no criminal record and that when he discovers that not one of the members, but the father of one of the members, has problems with the law, sells those shares. Be careful, he doesn’t sell those shares when the news comes out in the paper, he sells the shares when he finds out. Is this the worst thing you have against the Italian government? Of course, we have light undersecretaries. Delmastro was light-hearted but it’s a long way from saying that Delmastro connives with organized crime. But if there was a little hand that says: ‘in the last days of the electoral campaign let’s bring out the worst thing we have with the government’, the Italians will evaluate.”

Finally, the prime minister adds: “If the issue were broader and If there are other problems, the judiciary will take its course.”

The opposition arises: “It’s the whole referendum campaign that from President Meloni to the rest of the government continues to shout ‘he who makes a mistake pays’, but for them it doesn’t apply, for Delmastro it doesn’t apply, for an undersecretary of justice who sits down to found a company with the eighteen-year-old daughter of a man already under investigation and then convicted for mafia for being the figurehead of the Sienese clan, doesn’t it apply to them? Meloni should have demanded his resignation”, attacks the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein.

“It’s really sad that Meloni hypothesizes ‘little hands’ about the Delmastro affair and instead says nothing about the seriousness of having a Undersecretary of Justice having dinner with people linked to the mafia. Meloni is showing his worst face, that of someone who has sacrificed every value and principle to maintain power. For us, we don’t talk to the mafia, let alone sit at the table”, urges Riccardo Ricciardi, M5s group leader in the Chamber.

“Meloni is in a panic” about the referendum “and sees ‘little hands’, echoes the five-star vice-president Michele Gubitosa. The 5 stars themselves have presented a motion of censure against Delmastro in both the Chamber and the Senate. “Nothing but little hands, it’s freedom of the press”, counters Giuseppe Conte. “Delmastro lied and for this reason he should immediately resign as undersecretary of justice. If he doesn’t do it, let Giorgia Meloni remove him, for the dignity of the institutions. They want to separate the careers of judges from those of prosecutors, rather worry about separating politicians from the underworld”, is the thrust of Nicola Fratoianni of Avs.