Toti under interrogation for 8 hours: 'Never lobbied or favoured anyone, every euro used for politics'

The long interrogation of Liguria Region Governor Giovanni Toti, who has been suspended and under house arrest since 7 May in the Liguria corruption investigation, has ended after almost eight hours. More than 100 questions were answered by Toti, who was heard by the prosecutors in the Guardia di Finanza barracks inside the port of Genoa, at Molo Giano. The governor answered all the questions asked, in order to clarify his position on the charges laid in the order. Giovanni Toti, housebound under house arrest since 7 May on charges of corruption, answered all the questions posed, to clarify his position with regard to the charges that the prosecutor's office is accusing him of.

Assisted by lawyer Stefano Savi, the president of the Liguria Region responded to the various accusations, from the dispute over the money that ended up in his committee's coffers, to his relations with the Spinelli family and other entrepreneurs, from the alleged pressure to guarantee him advantages to the hypothesis of vote bargaining to guarantee his victory.

The questions that prosecutors Federico Manotti and Luca Monteverde, with deputy Vittorio Ranieri Miniati, asked Toti concern the funding received not only by Aldo Spinelli and Francesco Moncada, but also by landfill king Pietro Colucci and other entrepreneurs.

"I have never overstepped the specific competences of the bodies and offices in charge, I have never interfered in the free choices and decisions of the subjects involved, I have never put pressure on any subject, I have never served a particular interest to the detriment of the collective interest. This is one of the passages of the statement that Ligurian governor Giovanni Toti, who was arrested for corruption, handed over to the prosecutors during an interrogation that lasted about eight hours. "Never has such attention been expressed in overcoming or modifying the opinion of their own offices or the investigations of third-party bodies, such as the port authority offices. My intervention at the political/functional level has always been strictly limited to the authorisation path traced by the offices in charge in each field, limiting myself to asking for attention consistent with the market's need for speed, or the realisation of the works urged by the other administrative and governing bodies (port, mayor Bucci's commission structures) or to soliciting, within the administrative and legislative paths, the diligence and attention of the Ligurian municipalities in implementing the regional strategic plans,' Toti added.

"My political action has always been aimed at safeguarding the dignity and lustre of the Region and its institutions", "every intervention in favour of economic initiatives has been public" and "even every donation of money has taken place with the utmost transparency". This was written by the Ligurian governor Giovanni Toti, who was arrested for corruption, in a statement delivered to the Genoa prosecutors in charge of the investigation that has caused an earthquake in Ligurian politics. Among the charges are contested the transfers made to the political committees, but the President of the Liguria Region defends himself: 'All donations of money were credited using traceable methods and accounted for. Similarly, all expenses incurred (both in support of my political activity as leader of the Toti list in the Regional Council and in many municipal administrations, and in support of mayors, lists and candidates connected and consistent with the Toti list's political line, and of the government coalition's initiatives) have been accounted for and publicised in accordance with the law and even beyond. Budgets and accounts were (and still are) published on the websites of the political organisations supporting me,' he stressed. 'Every euro collected has had a political destination: no contribution has produced personal enrichment or utility for me, for the other members of my party or for private third parties,' Toti points out. "And precisely in order to dispel the slightest possible suspicion and guarantee maximum transparency and possibility of control, particular attention has been paid to separating every economic aspect of my private life from any economic activity linked to politics, to the extent of separating even my personal current accounts and using only dedicated and 'transparent' accounts for political activity, with credit and expense instruments that are traced, traceable, and always rigorously documentable,' the governor concludes.