Europe

Liguria governor, Meloni ally, resigns amid corruption probe

Liguria governor, Meloni ally, resigns amid corruption probe

Jul 26. () –

The governor of the Italian region of Liguria, Giovanni Toti, has resigned on Friday, under pressure from the corruption scandal for which he is being investigated and for which he has been under house arrest for almost three months.

“Giovanni Toti has resigned as president of the Liguria Region. Councillor Giacomo Raul Giampedrone handed in his irrevocable letter of resignation to the protocol office of the organisation at 10.40 this morning (Friday) on behalf of Toti himself,” according to a letter from Giampedrone, Toti’s adviser, sent to the Italian newspaper ‘La Repubblica’.

Toti, a political disciple of the late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, is a member of the Noi Moderati party, a junior partner in the coalition led by the country’s far-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and was suspended in May in connection with a case of alleged bribes received in exchange for favours, including the extension of the concession of a port terminal. The scandal also implicated the chief executive of infrastructure company Iren SpA, Paolo Emilio Signorini, who eventually resigned from his post.

After handing in his resignation, Toti sent a personal letter in his own handwriting in which he called for early elections in the region within a maximum period of three months and accused the political opposition of having approached this crisis “forgetting the values ​​of the past, of all legal civilization, of the Constitution and the culture of government that should represent those who are running for the leadership of a community.”

While Meloni is awaiting his pronouncement, one of the Italian government’s major coalition partners, the far-right League, has denounced the case against Toti as nothing more than “another attempt to subvert the popular vote through arrests and investigations.”

In its statement, the League said it “will not be intimidated by this situation” and declared itself convinced that “citizens will be able to respond democratically” in the upcoming elections where “the centre-right that has revived the region will be confirmed from every point of view.”

Source link

Tags