The Prime Ministerial Decree ( DPCM ) "was adopted upon the proposal of the Minister of Health, after consulting the other ministries, the regions, and the Technical Technical Committee (CTS) , and has become a very flexible instrument, allowing for prompt intervention based on the evolution of the contagion." Therefore, "it appeared to us to be the most suitable instrument for applying measures uniformly, as necessary." Five Star Movement leader Giuseppe Conte said this during the hearing before the Covid Committee, which is evaluating his management of the pandemic when he was Prime Minister. "The Prime Ministerial Decree," Conte explained, "offers broader and more effective scope for protecting citizens. An individual citizen can challenge it before the Regional Administrative Court (TAR), and that has happened."
During the pandemic, Conte explained, "we engaged in close dialogue with the experts of the Technical-Scientific Committee and with representatives of the institutions that offer consultancy on public health issues , such as the Higher Health Council, to have a scientific basis for the political decisions made from time to time. The aim of this effort was not to defer the final answer to science, since the final responsibility lies with politics ." "Every decision," the former prime minister continued, "is a choice, which protects one interest but compromises another. Such complexity must be governed, starting from the fundamental principle of respect for humanity, grasped in the concreteness of its needs."
Again, "You can dig as hard as you want," Conte told the Commission, "but you'll never find anything illegal as far as I'm concerned. Because there has never been any illegal behavior. I carried out my duties as the Constitution requires, with discipline and honor. And I won't allow anyone to cast a shadow over the management of the pandemic, because these shadows cast for mere political speculation end up also extending to the men and women of the State who fought to safeguard the national community."
Conte also filed a document : "It came into my hands," he explained, "anonymously, and as soon as it reached me, it was an anonymous letter, and I felt it was worthy of reporting to the Rome prosecutor's office. On Monday, I went to the Rome prosecutor's office to deliver this document, which will then be attached to this report."
"It's a document drawn up on April 14, 2022. It reached me with the names blacked out, but all the qualifications are there. It consists of 10 pages," Conte added, stating that it concerns the delivery of masks made by the company JC Electronics Italia, the same company at the center of a dispute over a €100 million transaction with the Meloni government. "The model of masks in the deposited packages does not correspond to the filtering mask and is a counterfeit representation of the accompanying document," Conte emphasized, adding that "there is a possibility that €100 million from the state was delivered to a private company" for "masks that did not correspond to the anticipated and declared characteristics."
For its part, JC Electronics Italia spa later announced: "The ten-page document that President Conte refers to, which he received anonymously, is nothing new: a ten-page document on the Aoxing masks has already been brought to court by the state, along with the dossier from the military of the Commissioner's Office, and has emerged unscathed from judicial scrutiny."
In the evening, Conte returned to the hearing, attacking Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni: "You shouldn't ask me if this hearing went well today, you should ask Giorgia Meloni if she's satisfied, because she's the one behind all this. She's also the one behind these attacks, this firing squad in the Covid commission . And so I'm sending her a message: since these little tricks are short-lived—because then the moment comes when I'm here, talking, clarifying for hours—then I say, Giorgia Meloni, isn't it better for you to confront me politically?"
The Prime Minister's immediate response was: "The work of the Covid commission is not a trial of a person, quite the opposite. And frankly, I don't understand why former Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte didn't join the chorus of those demanding answers to the many unanswered questions from the beginning, and instead chose to go on the defensive or, as in his latest statements, to 'turn it into politics.' This is not a trial of a person, but a duty to a nation that has paid a very high price. The truth about the pandemic is not a political attack. It is an Italian right," the Prime Minister wrote on social media.
(Unioneonline)