The Basilicata Region and the Municipality of Lagonegro were shaken this morning by an operation of the Police and Carabinieri, coordinated by the District Anti-Mafia Directorate of Potenza.

Among the more than

one hundred suspects

is the

president of the Region Vito Bardi.

Among the crimes alleged in various ways by the prosecutors there are

undue induction to corruption

,

attempted extortion

,

abuse of office.

The lines of the investigation concern regional healthcare and in particular the

restructuring of the San Carlo hospital in Lagonegro

, the

procurement of votes

, the management of

Covid

tampons .

For the Forza Italia group leader in the Regional Council,

Francesco Piro

, pre-trial detention in prison has been initiated.

According to the investigators, who refer to "multiple statements and wiretapping", he would have had "relations with members of local organized crime" and "not infrequently, to achieve his personal, political and electoral goals, and for intimidation purposes" he would have flaunted "the his alleged connections with Calabrian criminal contexts ".

Precautionary custody at home, instead for the mayor of Lagonegro

Maria Di Lascio

.

She is accused of having tried to retaliate against people who would not have given willingness to support Piro, a candidate (not elected) in the political elections on 25 September.

In fact, he would have asked (in vain) to officials of companies that manage mobile telephone networks to deactivate the radio links they manage to thus prevent telephone traffic in certain areas of the Lagonegrese where non-supporters of Piro lived, so that it was effectively prevented them to use cell phones.

The mayor would also have taken steps to prevent another alleged non-supporter of Piro from accessing the water pipes serving agricultural land and would have planned other retaliations against other alleged political opponents or rather non-supporters of the Forza Italia candidate.

The precautionary measure of the ban on staying in Potenza was instead issued against

Francesco Cupparo

, regional councilor of Forza Italia: prosecutors accuse him of having induced regional employees in the forestry sector to support Piro Sanità Lucana and "a criminal plan "Aimed at the" elimination "of Massimo Barresi, at the time of the facts (2020) general manager of the San Carlo Hospital in Potenza" and his consequent dismissal ".

This second trend also sees the president of the Region

Vito Bardi

and four other councilors in office at the time under investigation:

Rocco Leone

(also reached by a ban on residence), Francesco Fanelli, Donatella Merra and

Gianni Rosa

, newly elected to the Senate with the Brothers of Italy

Barresi lapsed from office on 6 August 2020 after a ruling by the TAR for Basilicata and the day after the Lucan council appointed as commissioner of San Carlo

Giuseppe Spera

(current director general), recipient of the third and final ban on residence ordered today, but also of the measure prohibiting the exercise of public functions

A third aspect on which the investigation has focused is the

management of swabs

, in the first period of the pandemic: according to the reconstruction of the Prosecutor's Office, "representatives of the regional administration, unlike other ordinary citizens", would have had access to Covid tests " in the absence of the strict conditions required by the legislation at the time ".

Among the other persons investigated are Gianni Mastroianni, councilor for the Municipality of Lagonegro, the secretary of the regional council Antonio Ferrara.

The offices of the Region and the San Carlo hospital

were searched

, while the news released in the morning of a search in Bardi's home would not correspond to the truth: reached by the police, he would have only handed over the phone.

Bardi denies any wrongdoing: "I go ahead"

“I want to be transparent as always with my fellow citizens: this morning they called me into question on some events under investigation.

First of all I want to reiterate my

availability towards the police and the judiciary to

which I will give the maximum collaboration to clarify ”.

This is what President Vito Bardi writes in a statement published on the Region's website.

“In particular - we read then - I am accused of having promised to

favor a person to obtain a transfer of headquarters

, a case in which I consider myself

completely unrelated

.

In another line of the investigation, which

absolutely does not concern me

, the involvement of

Calabrian organized crime is feared

, on which I hope that maximum clarity will be made immediately.

Some decisions of the council

are then challenged

, therefore public acts, which everyone can read, with which we would have tried to influence the then general director of San Carlo.

They are acts of planning and health care, which

had no ulterior motive

.

Finally, there is the painful question of tampons, which - I repeat once again -

did not steal anything from the citizens of Basilicata

and to whom I was subjected for health reasons and certainly not for favoritism, in the belief of the perfect duty of this service ".



Bardi concludes: "I want to be clear:

my willingness to move forward in the government of the Basilicata Region is not even in question.

I am serene, I have a job to complete, in the exclusive interest of the Lucanians, especially in a moment of unprecedented crisis like the one we are experiencing.

Finally, I want to underline a fact: my life has always been based on legality and respect for the rules.

It's my personal story ”.