3 March 2007

Buying and Selling Votes

Text:
“The government that I am part of has gained the vote of confidence from the Lower House and the Upper House. Thus today is a day of satisfaction but also of responsibility. It’s gone OK like that, but tomorrow we need to demonstrate that we deserve this vote of confidence. This is what I, for myself and for Italia dei Valori, am committed to.
Certainly we had a lucky break especially in the Upper House, the Senate, with voting of 158 to 156 among the voters. Thus even one vote less would have been enough to not give us the political majority.
We were lucky because I know there were attempts to buy the odd vote. Lots of people talked about this, even though there seemed to be accusations against each side without a firm basis.
However there is the solid fact and irony of the outcome. It has put forward the first political “Judas”: De Gregorio who was a candidate with the Centre Left actually in the party of Italia dei Valori in the lists of Italians in the World. He made a political agreement with the party. He was presented to me as a person who could make a contribution. I placed my trust in him and I made a mistake.
This gentleman, as soon as he entered Parliament, sold his political soul for the position of President of the Defence Commission. He sold the vote of those who elected him and the trust placed in him.
But the most serious thing is that just recently he has been “plotting” to find other “companions” to follow him in his adventures. He contacted another senator, trying to buy his favours politically, promising more than the limit of the skies in terms of money.
Luckily, not everyone is like him. There are honest people who faced with such responsibilities felt it appropriate to inform the Institutions. Thus I came to know about this and I carried out my duty by informing the competent authorities. Is that a tiny nasty example of bad politics?
I invite you to reflect: Can a Parliament, a Government, a political body be governed on the basis of political opportunism and personal convenience?
We need a regulation that allows for the termination of office for political traitors.
We need a regulation saying that someone elected in a coalition who betrays their electorate, most be sent home. Otherwise every time that a single vote is to be the decider for an elected assembly it’s like the devil that tempts. If there’s no morality, there’s no politics.
We need to bring back morality into politics. But with rules that prevent the immoral from doing politics.”

Posted by Antonio Di Pietro in Politics