- The Bergamo public prosecutor's office wants to hear the head of government for his investigation into the management of the coronavirus epidemic.
- At the heart of the investigation, delays in the creation of a "red zone" comprising two municipalities in this department particularly affected.
- The Covid-19 has killed more than 34,000 people on the peninsula.
Account time. The public prosecutor's office in Bergamo, in the north of Italy, will hear the head of government Giuseppe Conte in the context of an investigation into the management of the coronavirus epidemic which has killed more than 34,000 people on the peninsula.
The magistrates, who could go to Rome to hear the President of the Council, also wish to listen to the testimony of the Ministers of Health, Roberto Speranza, and of the Interior, Luciana Lamorgese, added these same agencies.
"I will report all the facts that I know of"
In a quick statement to the press on Wednesday evening, Giuseppe Conte said that the hearing would take place on Friday. "The things I have to say to the prosecutor, I will tell the prosecutor, I do not want to anticipate. I will conscientiously report all the facts of which I have knowledge. I am not at all worried, ”assured the Prime Minister. “All inquiries are welcome. Citizens have the right to know and we have the right to respond, ”he added.
The public prosecutor's office in Bergamo, a martyr city in the Lombardy region and the epicenter of the epidemic that struck Italy from the beginning of February to May, is conducting several separate investigations linked to this tragedy. The one in which the magistrates wish to hear Giuseppe Conte and his two ministers concerns the delays in the creation of a "red zone" comprising two municipalities in this department, Nembro and Alzano Lombardo, particularly affected by the Covid-19.
The central government and the leaders of Lombardy reject the responsibility for this delay, which had a dramatic impact with the saturation of the health system, the increase in mortality and the spread of the new coronavirus in this region.
The President of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, and his Regional Health Officer, Giulio Gallera, heard at the end of May before the Bergamo public prosecutor's office on this aspect, had affirmed that the decision to establish the "red zone" was up to the government in Rome . The Minister of Regional Affairs, Francesco Boccia, replied at the time that "even the region could have established it, there is a law allowing it". The whole question therefore concerns who, from the central government or Lombardy, should have, between March 3 and 9, set up this alert zone.
This investigation is separate from the class action brought on Wednesday morning, also in Bergamo, with the filing with the local public prosecutor's office of around fifty complaints by relatives of victims of the virus, the first group action in Italy concerning the pandemic.
“Red zones” established in February
The first “red zones” were established at the end of February by decision of the Italian government and concerned a dozen municipalities in Lombardy, notably Codogno, the city of “patient number one”.
In early March, the epidemic continued to spread, with two larger outbreaks, in the two municipalities of Nembro and Alzano, in the department of Bergamo.
The Technical and Scientific Committee (CTS), which advises the government, then proposed to impose a "red zone" there, judging that the situation "worsened throughout Lombardy", while the Higher Institute of Health (ISS) in turn recommended the same measure the next day in these two municipalities.
Lost time
But, according to Corriere , Giuseppe Conte once again met these experts on March 6, to finally choose to make the whole country a "red zone", by a decree signed on March 7 and entered into force the next day, thus losing a precious time to contain the pandemic.
"After so many lies and shameful attacks, justice is done: those who have made mistakes must pay," said Matteo Salvini, the head of the League (far right), to which the president of the Lombardy, itself severely criticized for its management of the crisis.
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- Coronavirus
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- Giuseppe Conte