Italy’s Conte Testifies to Prosecutors on Virus Measures
Italy’s Conte Set to Testify to Prosecutors on Virus Measures
(Bloomberg) --
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte testified before prosecutors investigating the government’s failure to isolate two northern towns earlier this year, as a bitter political tussle over handling of the coronavirus outbreak shifted to the judiciary.
Conte, who is not under investigation, gave testimony at his official Rome residence on Friday morning to prosecutor Maria Cristina Rota, who’s based in the city of Bergamo, according to Conte’s office. She’s leading a probe into why a lockdown wasn’t ordered in early March in the nearby areas of Nembro and Alzano Lombardo.
The testimony took place in a positive climate of collaboration, Rota told reporters after the hearing, according to news agency Ansa. Conte said he sought at the hearing to clarify all the steps involved in detail, according to a statement sent by his office.
Conte’s hearing has been seized on by political rivals anxious to weaken him as he prepares to map out how assistance from the European Union should be spent. The premier dismissed earlier Friday media speculation that he might be tempted to start a new political party after surveys showed such a group could win support of about 15%.
“It would be crazy on my part to dedicate even minimal energy to these thoughts,” Conte, who is close to the anti-establishment Five Star Movement but is not a member of any party, was cited as saying by newspaper La Repubblica.
Lockdown Loggerheads
The embattled prime minister, seeking to salvage an economy devastated by the recently ended nationwide lockdown, is at loggerheads with political leaders in northern Lombardy, the region that encompasses Bergamo and the original European epicenter of the outbreak. Each side has blamed the other for the absence of prompt isolation measures in the two zones.
The premier said April 6 that he stands by his decisions involving the two areas, noting that he eventually took the “more rigorous decision” of imposing a lockdown on all of Lombardy, rather than isolating the two towns.
Rota is leading an investigation into persons unknown for the possible crime of culpability in causing an epidemic. She also spoke with Health Minister Roberto Speranza and Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese.
Conte’s government sealed off a dozen towns near Milan in late February after an Italian tested positive for the virus, with containment measures later extended to all of Lombardy and then nationwide as the contagion spread. Free travel within the country was reinstated only in early June.
Lombardy Governor Attilio Fontana, of the anti-migrant League party, and the region’s health chief Giulio Gallera, of the center-right Forza Italia, both told Rota on May 29 that the decision not to isolate the two towns was made by the central government in Rome, which had earlier deployed military personnel to the region for possible assistance, Ansa reported. The League and Forza Italia are part of the opposition to Conte’s coalition government.
Marathon Talks
Conte will on Saturday kick off a nine-day marathon session of closed-door talks with ministers and leaders from the business, finance, labor and other sectors as he draws up economic stimulus measures tied to the European Union’s proposed 750 billion-euro ($852 billion) recovery plan.
Participants lined up for Saturday -- counting those who’ll attend via video link -- include European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva and EU Commissioner for Economic Affairs Paolo Gentiloni, who’s also a former Italian prime minister, Conte’s office said.
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