Under house arrest

Toti's resignation: Liguria ready for new elections within 3 months

Giovanni Toti resigns as governor of Liguria, paving the way for new regional elections within three months

by Redaction Rome

26 July 2024

Foto Massimo Paolone/LaPresse 23 agosto 2021 Rimini, Italia cronaca Meeting Rimini 2021 - Il coraggio di dire io - FRA FEDERALISMO E CENTRALISMO QUALI PROSPETTIVE PER LE REGIONI Nella foto: Giovanni Toti, Presidente Regione Liguria Photo Massimo Paolone/LaPresse August 23, 2021 Rimini, Italy news Rimini Meeting 2021 - The courage to say me - BETWEEN FEDERALISM AND CENTRALISM AS PERSPECTIVES FOR THE REGIONS In the pic: Giovanni Toti

5' min read

Key points

Toti: irrevocable resignation within 3 months at the polls
"New phase opens for voters to judge"
Legal Toti: new instance of freedom, OK for immediate trial
Lega: investigations and arrests to subvert the vote
Voting times
Open confrontation in the centre-right on succession
Investigation

5' min read

Giovanni Toti has resigned from his post as governor of Liguria. Delivering the letter of irrevocable resignation to the Region's protocol office was Councillor Giacomo Raul Giampedrone this morning at 10.40 a.m., by proxy of Toti himself. The latter, two-thirds of the way through his second term as governor, was first elected president at the helm of the Liguria Region on 11 June 2015 and confirmed at the 2020 regional elections. The step back of the governor, housebound since 7 May on charges of corruption (and more recently also of illegal financing), was now expected. Signs in this direction had also arrived yesterday. President Toti's civic list during the regional council changed its name from 'Cambiamo con Toti presidente' to 'Lista Toti Liguria'.

Toti: irrevocable resignation, within 3 months to the polls

"After three months since the beginning of my house arrest and the consequent suspension from the office that the voters have entrusted to me twice, I have decided that the time has come to irrevocably resign as President of the Regional Council of Liguria". Thus the President of the Liguria Region Giovanni Toti in the letter with which he tendered his resignation from the leadership of Liguria this morning. "I am leaving a Region in order. I waited until today to hand in my resignation,' he added, 'to allow the Regional Council to approve the budget adjustment and the statement of accounts, which are fundamental for the management of the authority. He explains: 'While this letter of mine is being made public,' Toti adds, 'which I have asked my defender, lawyer Stefano Savi, to circulate, the formal text of my resignation is being delivered to the acting President of the Council and to the President of the Legislative Assembly for all the legal formalities. I take full responsibility for calling to the polls, in advance, in the next three months, the voters of our territory, who will have to decide for their own future'.

"New phase opens, voters to judge"

"A new phase is opening for everyone, the voters will have the task of judging the Liguria we have built together over these long years and deciding whether to go ahead along this road," Toti wrote in the letter with which he resigned. And he urges: 'It is the responsibility of the majority parties to proudly valorise the results achieved, not to betray the consensus gathered, to valorise the ruling class that has grown up on the territory. To the courts of the Republic to assess the responsibilities called into question by the enquiry. To the national parliament and the country's public opinion the duty to treasure this experience and draw clear and fair rules for the coexistence of justice and politics within our democratic system".

Legal Toti: new liberty petition, ok for immediate trial

"To us the immediate is fine. We don't want to do it while in custody. It is also convenient for us rather than spending two or three more years on the gridiron'. Giovanni Toti's defence lawyer Stefano Savi said this. On Monday, the lawyer will present an application to revoke the house arrest. If it is accepted, the appeal to the Court of Cassation against the rejection by the re-examination will automatically lapse.

Lega: investigations and arrests to subvert the vote

'In Liguria we are faced with yet another attempt to subvert the popular vote using enquiries and arrests. The League will not be intimidated and the citizens will know how to respond democratically by reconfirming the centre-right that has relaunched the Region from all points of view'. Thus a note from the League commenting on Toti's resignation.

Renzi: we with the centre-left also in Liguria

In the meantime, calculations are already being made as to when they will return to the polls. A question of rules and laws. Between 60 and 90 days. There is no date yet, but the season is certain: autumn. And meanwhile the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi announces that Iv "will stand together for the regional elections, also in Liguria" , with the centre-left and "will not present" a candidature of its own, which "will instead be presented by the coalition

Crosetto: Justice is defeated by this affair

The Minister of Defence, Guido Crosetto, wrote on social media: "An incensed and still innocent citizen had to resign in order to hope to be free and be able to obtain his constitutional rights again. From this affair, Justice is defeated and a saddening weakness of Politics, the one with a capital P, the one that knows how to defend principles and not only close friends or magic circles, is revealed. I notice too much subservience, almost fear, towards a State power that should instil no fear in honest people. Maybe because they know that in Italy it is not enough to be honest to feel peaceful. Because history has shown us that honesty perhaps emerges after 10, 15 or 20 years. I, on the other hand, stubbornly believe that we must fight battles of principle, without fear. Because fear of retaliation is not a feeling that can have space in a true and mature democracy.

Un cittadino incensurato e tutt'ora innocente si è dovuto dimettere per poter sperare di essere libero e poter ottenere nuovamente i suoi diritti costituzionali.
Da questa vicenda esce sconfitta la Giustizia e si palesa una rattristante debolezza della Politica, quella con la P…
— Guido Crosetto (@GuidoCrosetto) July 26, 2024

Open confrontation in the centre-right on succession

In the centre-right, on the other hand, the debate on the succession has opened. The League is aiming for the leadership of the region, but it is not yet clear whether with a civic leader or with a long-standing politician and profound connoisseur of Liguria such as Edoardo Rixi, Salvini's current deputy for Infrastructure.

L’inchiesta

Meanwhile, 500 metres from the Regional Council building is the prosecutor's office, where the last witnesses in the corruption investigation that led to Toti's house arrest are being paraded, an enquiry that is now in its final stages. The forensic analysis of the mobile phones and devices seized almost three months ago should soon be concluded, and then the public prosecutor's office will decide what to do about Toti, the businessman Aldo Spinelli, and the former president of the Port Authority Paolo Emilio Signorini . A choice that may not come before Tuesday, given that Monday is the deadline for the governor to present a possible appeal to the re-examination for the second pre-trial detention. A time that may not pass without twists and turns, because formalising the resignation would allow Giovanni Toti to immediately request the revocation of his house arrest. And if Toti were released in the coming days, it could defuse a possible request for immediate trial by the public prosecutor's office.

The charges

In the maxi-investigation by the Genoa Public Prosecutor's Office and the Finance Police, Toti is accused by the prosecutors, led by Nicola Piacente, of having received in several tranches, through his election committee, 74,100 euro from the logistics and real estate entrepreneurs Aldo and Roberto Spinelli to facilitate business deals. A key figure in the investigation was Toti's chief of staff, Matteo Cozzani, former mayor of Portovenere and strongman in the Cinque Terre. He has been placed under house arrest twice (Genoa and La Spezia) for corruption and bid-rigging. The investigation, according to reconstructions, began in January 2020 when the Change Foundation headed by Toti ended up in the spotlight of Bankitalia for some loans that were labelled 'Suspicious transaction reports', the so-called Sos.

On 18 July, the now ex-president of the Liguria Region received a new precautionary measure for alleged illicit financing concealed through election ads piloted by former Esselunga manager Francesco Moncada, in support of the candidacy of the mayor Marco Bucci in the 2022 local elections, but in reality to obtain concessions - according to the prosecution - for the opening of other shops in the city. Similar conducts were also found by the investigators in the management of the electoral campaign for the political elections of the same year. The second order reiterates the existence of a 'consolidated systematic nature of the corruptive mechanism'.