Liguria Council, no-confidence motion against Toti rejected

The motion of no-confidence against Liguria Region President Giovanni Toti, who has been under house arrest since 7 May, presented in the Regional Council by four of the five political forces in opposition: Pd, Lista Sansa, M5S and Linea Condivisa, excluding Azione, was rejected. There were 18 votes against (the entire centre-right) and 11 in favour (Pd, Lista Sansa, M5S and Linea Condivisa). Absent because on leave for 'personal reasons' was the leader of the Azione group, who did not sign the document.

"With a political short-sightedness with rare precedents, today, with this motion of no-confidence, the oppositions are attempting a political pushback that will not only fail in terms of numbers, but confirms, if ever there was a need, their own inadequacy to lead this region. After a decade of constant defeats, both political and electoral, the same ruling class of the left that has been able to disappoint the citizens more than any other, in a region where its traditions were very strong, today glimpses, thanks to an investigation by the judiciary, the possibility of recovering some of the lost ground'. The letter that the governor of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, sent to the Regional Council on the day when the opposition presented its motion of no-confidence for discussion starts off on the attack. A long letter read 'proudly' by the leader of the Toti List, Alessandro Bozzano. The president of Liguria Region has been suspended from his duties and is under house arrest for corruption and vote exchange.

"Toti's resignation is a necessary political act, the enquiry that has hit Liguria, decapitating the administrative capacity of the Liguria Region and the port of Genoa, has demonstrated the political and managerial failure of which the centre-right is the protagonist, a degeneration of politics and public ethics that has expropriated democracy". This is what the leader of the Democratic Party, Luca Garibaldi, pointed out while speaking at the beginning of the Liguria Regional Council meeting, whose agenda included the motion of no-confidence against Regional President Giovanni Toti, who has been under house arrest since 7 May. "The centre-right has not been able to make any choice with Toti and neither will it be without Toti, it has failed politically in every aspect of public affairs," Garibaldi attacked, "building a narrative according to which 'everything is fine', a 'bubble of inclusion' made up of sick relations with business and corporate relations.

"A president of the Region who in the offices of the Region together with the mayor of Genoa for the local elections organises the votes of mafiosi, can no longer be president of the Region, he must resign," Garibaldi continued. His words, referring to the alleged votes of the riesina community conveyed by the brothers Arturo and Maurizio Testa, members of Forza Italia in Lombardy accused of electoral bribery committed for the purpose of facilitating mafia activity, caused an uproar among the majority benches with some councillors reminding Garibaldi how every councillor is 'responsible for his words'.

"The Region of Liguria is in an extraordinary situation, for me it can also stay there until the end of the mandate, we have all the requirements and papers in order to stay until the end of the mandate, unless President Toti indicates otherwise". This was stated by interim president of the Liguria Region Alessandro Piana at a press conference on the sidelines of the Regional Council meeting on the opposition's no-confidence motion against President Giovanni Toti. 'From an administrative point of view we have the papers in order to continue,' he reiterated. And to those who asked: 'Do you feel hung up on the outcome of the European elections? he replied: 'Salamis are hung up.