8 May 2008

Vain Hope

I’m publishing a brief statement I made today at the end of the consultation at the Quirinale with the President of the Republic, on the topic of justice.
”If it’s true, as it is true that you can identify a good day first thing in the morning, we will understand already in the next few hours what this government and its President of the Council intend to do when we can see the name of the Minister of Justice. Because by looking at that name we will be able to understand what real space will be given to a commitment related to the fundamental topics why the Centre Right has won the elections giving the Italians to believe that it can do better than us in dealing with justice and security.
If there really turns out to be a clear rethink, and thus solid action in relation to security interventions, Italia dei Valori will give its own contributions in terms of ideas, solutions and support. Naturally, knowing who we are dealing with, first we want to be able to read the documents, to evaluate them and then take action.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice
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7 May 2008

State Schizophrenia

I’m publishing Marco Travaglio’s article called "Europa7, lo Stato copia Mediaset" {Europa7, the State copies Mediaset}.

Today the Council of State, after 9 years of legal battles in Italy and in Europe, will decide the amount to be paid by the State in recompense to Europa7 for the failure to assign frequencies to them and whether to finally let them broadcast nationally. In the discussion, the government is represented by the State Advocacy Service. They have surprisingly been given the task by the Minister of Communications, Paolo Gentiloni and asked to reject the requests of the publisher Francesco Di Stefano and to defend the status quo: that is the Gasparri law and the right of Rete4 to occupy the frequencies even without a concession (lost by Mediaset and won by Europa7 in 1999).


A fact that is quite individual: the Unione had promised to repeal the Gasparri law and on 31 January the European Court of Justice gave its support to the rights of Europa7 against those of Rete4. But that’s not enough. To defend Rete4, the State Advocacy Service representing the Prodi government copied in its memo, whole pages taken from that of the Mediaset lawyers. . Not to cite their hypotheses in inverted commas. But to take them on as their own, without even giving details about where they came from. The Berlusconi group officially is not one of the parties to the discussion: Europa7, for the failure to assign the frequencies, has cited the State through the Ministry of Communications and the Authority overseeing Communications. But Mediaset intervened anyway with a memo, knowing well that, if the frequencies were to be assigned to Europa7, it would be Rete4 to lose them. And the State Advocate, Maurizio Di Carlo, what does he do? Cut and paste of the Mediaset memo, without even trying to camouflage this authentic privatization of the institution at the service of the “Biscione”. The whole thing, even before Berlusconi is back in government for the third time.

Read and compare the memo by the State Advocacy Service (55 pages) and by Mediaset (78 pages). The complete text is given on www.voglioscendere.it. It’s a tragicomic party game of “Spot the difference”. The most obvious is that the State defends Rete4 with even more passion than Mediaset does. For the rest, page after page plucked exactly as it is from the documents of the Berlusconian company. A few examples: Pagine 9 of the State Advocacy document: ten lines (from 7 to 17) copied from page 49 of the Mediaset memo (lines 1-15). Page 5 (from line 20) to Page 6 (up to line 18) of the State Advocacy are identical to pages 60 (from line 3), 61 (all the page) and 62 (up to line 11) in the Mediaset document. Pages 17 (from line 7) and 18 (up to line13) of the State Advocacy document are the same as pages 60 (from line 3), 61 (all the page) and 62 (up to line22) in the Mediaset document. Page 53 (lines 4-23) State Advocacy document is plagiarized from pages 39 (from line 9) and 40 (up to line5) in the Mediaset document. On page 35 (lines 27-31) of the State Advocacy document, there are the same words as on page 47 (lines 17-22) in the Mediaset document. And so on. Once there’s a “thus” missed out. In another place there’s a “in relation to this” instead of “firstly”. All the rest, including erroneous punctuation (many commas between the subject and the verb), is identical. The same is true for the conclusions with outcomes that are at times comical.

According to the State Advocacy Service, if Europa7 has not had the frequencies, it’s their fault: they should have “acquired them even on their own initiative” (and where? And how? With weapons in their hands?), given that the State: “didn’t have the actual availability of the frequencies” (obviously: they allowed them to be kept by Telepiù nero and Rete4, by now without the concession). And anyway – Di Carlo added – by dis-applying the Maccanico law and the Gasparri law and turning off the analogue frequencies for Rete4 would not mean the automatic transfer to Europa7 (and to whom, thank you?).

Basically the State is ignoring the recent verdict of the European Court in Luxembourg, requested by the very same Council of State, according to which the community regulations “are an obstacle to a national system of regulations whose application means that an operator that owns a concession finds it impossible to transmit because a lack of frequencies assigned on the basis of objective criteria, that are transparent, non-discriminatory and proportional.”

Thus, it’s enough that the “transitory regime set up in favour of the existing networks” to the disadvantage of Europa7, in accordance with the Maccanico law, of the “save-Rete4”, of the Gasparri law, of the Gentiloni draft law (that never became law). All the laws that should be repealed.
They are not: “the free provision of services” protected by community regulations – writes the European Court – “they need not just the concession of the authorisation to broadcast, but also the assigning of the frequencies”, otherwise, “an operator cannot make use of the rights given to it by community law for the access to the TV market”. With this verdict in their hands, the lawyers Grandinetti and Pace working for Europa7 ask the Council of State for the frequencies and recompense for the damage suffered.
The “emerging damage”, that is the money spent so far for the investments required by law for anyone who wins a concession (more than 120 million euro). And the “lucro cessante”, that is the loss of profits of the TV that was never born (more than 2 billion euro). Always assuming that the Council will give a verdict telling the State to finally assign the frequencies to them.
Otherwise Europa7 would die for ever and Di Stefano would have the right to the value of the whole company. The government of the Unione, by means of the State Advocacy Service, talks in playback: text and music from Mediaset. No reimbursement. No frequencies. Long live Gasparri. Rete4 sine die. Everything as before, as ever. Berlusconi would not have known how to do better.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Information
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Open letter to Romano Prodi and Paolo Gentiloni

I’m publishing a letter signed by the senators and deputies of Italia dei Valori and addressed to the President of the Council, Romano Prodi, and the Minister of Communications, Paolo Gentiloni with a copy sent to the President of the Democratic Party, Walter Veltroni, about the issue of Europa 7 and the use of the State Advocacy Service that was done during the time of the Prodi government.

”Dear President and Honoured Friends and Colleagues,
On 31 January 2008, the European Court of Justice gave its decision in the case that saw the private broadcaster Europa 7 against the Ministry of Communications. It found against the Italian system of assigning frequencies for the activity of TV broadcasting.

According to the Luxembourg Court the system for assigning frequencies in Italy does not respect the principle of the freedom of providing services and it does not follow objective selection criteria that are transparent, non-discriminatory and proportional.

Already in November 2002, the Constitutional Court, with verdict number 466, established that Retequattro had to definitively stop terrestrial broadcasting by 31 December 2003.

The verdict 466/2002 of the Constitutional Court has been repeatedly not observed, first with the “saveRete4” law of 24 December 2003, and then with the approval in 2004 of the Gasparri law and finally, during the XV legislature with the failure to approve a law that affirms the pluralism of information in Italy.

Today we have learned that the State Advocacy Service, during the time of the Prodi government, has maintained the same line of conduct that was held during the previous term of the Berlusconi government, in fact expressing itself to be in favour of an advantage to the Mediaset channels, and thus in violation of the principles of freedom of competition and the pluralism of information.

Continue reading “Open letter to Romano Prodi and Paolo Gentiloni"

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Politics
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6 May 2008

Violence and Political Propaganda

The young man who was beaten up in Verona by a group of neo-Nazis for refusing to give them a cigarette, has died. I offer my condolences to his parents and I hope that those who are guilty will pay for the crimes.
The parties are exploiting his death, it is a right wing death, just as the death of signora Reggiani at the hands of a Roma person was a left wing death.
Violence is becoming an alibi to give direction to public opinion and to create still more new monsters.

The problem of violence is rooted in the non-punishability of most crimes, from a destabilisation of the magistracy that has come about during the government of the last fifteen years.

The magistracy has neither the material nor the legal means to intervene effectively. It’s necessary to get rid of the shameful laws, to simplify and shorten the trial process to reestablish a correct relationship between the citizens and justice.
Perhaps the time has come for the country to start to talk about the reasons for which justice has become not applicable and to ask who are the people responsible for this situation.
The citizens can no longer be taken for a ride. On the one hand there’s a call for security, on the other hand the application of the penalties is made impossible.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice
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5 May 2008

Censorship by the regime

The decision by RAI Chairman Petruccioli to reprimand Santoro for the AnnoZero programme dedicated to the signature gathering operation organised by Beppe Grillo on 25 April, in support of the call for a referendum regarding freedom of information, is somewhat disconcerting. Those who watched the programme will surely have thought that a reprimand was in fact called for, but against Sgarbi who, without any reason, continuously insulted the other people present who did not react, and then proceeded to talk nonsense regarding the contributions to the Giornale and regarding the dismissal of Enzo Biagi. Petruccioli did not deem it necessary to highlight Beppe Grillo’s statement regarding the illegality of Rete 4, as sanctioned by the European Court of Justice, which will cost the Italian taxpayer more than 300 million Euro.
This is called censorship, and this in a free Country where the listener has a right to know that two million people took to the streets to sign a petition calling for a referendum and where 1,500,000 signatures were gathered in a just one day, including mine, an event never before witnessed in the history of the Republic. A demonstration on such a scale cannot simply be ignored.
If it is true that you can tell how good the day will be from the early morning, then we can expect that all kinds of attempts will be made to shut down the last few remaining avenues for free information in our Country.
The Italia dei Valori Party is doing everything within its power to ensure that this does not occur, particularly should we obtain the Chairmanship of the RAI Vigilance Committee as we have expressly requested.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Information
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30 April 2008

Throttled by paying sales tax up front

The relaunch of enterprise needs immediate and decisive action. One of the problems, in particular for the SME is cash, having liquidity for investment, or even for current trading, without having to get credit, and thus without having to get into debt and having to pay interest which is ever more onerous because of the increasing cost of money.
Italia dei Valori as its first action in its parliamentary activity will propose the abolition of the regime of paying sales tax up front on invoices issued. The recovery of the sales tax should happen on payment of the invoice. This measure if approved by Parliament will allow the companies to shake off a financial burden and to avoid having long waits for the repayment of the sales tax and the adjustments. Paying the sales tax up front today is of benefit to the banking system but not to industry as the companies are often obliged to get into debt to carry on their activity.
This initiative is just the first one that Italia dei Valori will carry out, to allow the development of companies and to put them in a condition to be able to compete in the Italian and international market.

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Economy
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Jumble of Words from the Senatur

In recent days I have many times severely criticized Umberto Bossi’s declarations which are on the edge of legality. I’m leaving the space for a press release by an Italia dei Valori deputy, Silvana Mura, to comment on the latest declarations made a few hours ago by the leader of the “Carroccio”. They are declarations that are not worthy of a representative of a democratic country.
”The verbal exchanges between Umberto Bossi and Francesco Caruso, packed with rifles ready to shoot and threats, makes the skin come out in goose pimples. The problem however is that while fortunately Caruso is no longer in Parliament, unfortunately Bossi is about to become a Minister.
”It is true that Bossi for years has been doing too much talking and from his words, almost never, in every sector, have the facts followed, but in a serious country, if a politician were to have spoken even a single time, a sentence like that of his rifles, he would never have been able to become a Minister. Just imagine one, who like him, continues to repeat this provocatively at each step forward. It is truly unacceptable that all this is passed over, thanks to the “golden share” that the Lega has in relation to the next government.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in
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28 April 2008

Between excessive moral goodness and solidarity

I’m publishing an interview that I gave to il Corriere della Sera on the topic of immigration and security. At the end, you will find my articles on the topic, some of which are even very harsh. The election campaign was played out instrumentally on this topic, both for the national elections and for the local elections.

Antonio Di Pietro: An intervention is needed in relation to Romanians. And if Berlusconi is going to do this we will not be ashamed of supporting him.

Cds: Why?
Antonio Di Pietro: It is obvious that for the Centre Left it is easy to say that the view of the Italians has been dimmed. Too much. But it’s not with fears that you search for votes. I hope that after the drunkenness of the Centre Right, the voter will open his eyes. However…

Cds: However?
Antonio Di Pietro: However it is true that between a goody-goody approach and the pretend solidarity we have created an ungovernable situation. And now everyone finds themselves to be justice-alists.

Cds: Berlusconi is announcing measures.
Antonio Di Pietro: And we will support them. That’s always after we have read them.

Cds: Will you vote with the PDL?
Antonio Di Pietro: We will not be ashamed of giving strength to an act that we consider to be self critical: starting from the indiscriminate entry, it’s they who have created the problems. It will be the first action of a constructive opposition.

Cds: What are you hoping for?
Antonio Di Pietro: Filters on entries from Rumania. Sending back all those Rumanians without a fixed address or a job. More funding and personnel for the police and the tribunals to accelerate the trial processes and also for carrying out penalties after the first level of judgement. And above all that there are no tricks.

Cds: Are you afraid there may be some trick-amendments?
Antonio Di Pietro: Yes. Last time they had a measure to lengthen the “time out” for recidivists and they shortened the time for Berlusconi so that they never do the trials for him. But now, given that his troubles are sorted out, perhaps he can resolve them for the Italians.

Previous Articles:
Security for the citizens
Italy, the soft underbelly of the European Union
Moratorium now
Immigration and criminality

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Justice
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