Altieri: here is the Northern League politician who will head ANAC, the authority that has shone a spotlight on the Strait Bridge

A League MP, a career politician, at the helm of ANAC, the National Anti-Corruption Authority – the body that oversees public procurement and which has previously expressed criticisms and procedural concerns regarding the construction of the Messina Strait Bridge, the ‘flagship project’ of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini.

The Council of Ministers meeting held on Thursday 5 November at Palazzo Chigi not only decided to postpone the approval of the new energy bills decree. ‘The Council of Ministers,’ reads the statement published by Palazzo Chigi at the end of the meeting, ‘on the proposal of the Minister for Public Administration, Paolo Zangrillo, resolved to initiate the procedure for the appointment of Dr Trifone Altierias President of the National Anti-Corruption Authority, and Major General Ivano Maccani, Dr Eugenio Rubolino, barrister Carmela Margherita Rodà and Professor and barrister Maria Rosaria Maugeri as members of the same Authority’. “The launch of the procedure for appointing the President,” the document continues, “is proposed in consultation with the Minister of Justice, Carlo Nordio, and the Minister of the Interior, Matteo Piantedosi.” The outgoing President, Giuseppe Busia, will remain in office until the appointment is formalised. The proposal will be submitted to Parliament for the mandatory opinion of the relevant parliamentary committees, and will then return to the Council of Ministers before the appointment is finally formalised by a Decree of the President of the Republic.

With Altieri, known as ‘Nuccio’, Salvini has secured two key appointments, alongside that of Giulio Centemero to Consob. ‘Beyond political patronage. Far beyond. What a disgrace,’ was the comment posted on X by the leader of Azione, Carlo Calenda. With an “irresponsible and extremely serious decision”, the government is “bending an institution designed to safeguard the public interest, such as ANAC, to the logic of political affiliation”, was the PD’s attack on Altieri, formerly head of the Lega’s defence department and, since the spring, a member of Leonardo’s board of directors.

Born in Conversano (Bari) on 27 September 1975, Altieri is a freelance journalist with a degree in Political Science. He is known for his political activity within the centre-right and for the posts he has held in public and state-owned companies. From 2000 to 2006, he was head of the press office for the Under-Secretary of State for Defence.

A career politician. A member of Forza Italia, he served as a provincial councillor in Bari from 2004 to 2009, whilst from 2009 to 2014 he held the post of Vice-President of the Province of Bari. In the 2013 general election, he stood as a candidate for the Chamber of Deputies in the Puglia constituency on the Popolo della Libertà list, finishing second amongst those not elected. On 16 November 2013, following the suspension of Popolo della Libertà’s activities, he joined Forza Italia. On 26 September 2014, following the resignation of Antonio Leone (elected as a member of the High Council of the Judiciary), he became a Member of Parliament. On 30 May 2015, disagreeing with Silvio Berlusconi’s political decisions, he left Forza Italia to join Raffaele Fitto’s Conservatives and Reformists. On 19 November 2015, he moved to the Mixed Group, joining the Conservatives and Reformists faction. On 8 November 2017, he left Direzione Italia and joined ‘Noi con Salvini’, a political movement linked to the Northern League and active in southern Italy.