Conte met Salvini and Di Maio before signing the opinion on Retelit

Giuseppe Conte continues to defend itself and denies any possible conflict of interest. In recent weeks, Prime Minister Conte has been targeted by Financial Times for the alleged conflict of interest on the Fiber case, for which it will be in the Chamber to clarify its position. In recent days the prime minister defended himself and explained, in a letter addressed to the financial newspaper, that he had acted in the light of day. "My actions – stressed the premier in the letter sent to Financial Times – were deemed totally appropriate and in the light of day by the Antitrust Authority, responsible for investigating conflicts of interest in Italy". As regards the alleged conflict of interest, Giuseppe Conte explains that he"formally and substantially abstained"and that he did not even attend the meeting of the Council of Ministers which on 7 June 2018 decided to use the" golden power ".

Will be repeating this version tonight a Montecitorio. The Financial Times he noted that a Vatican-backed investment fund at the center of a financial corruption investigation was the basis of a group of investors who hired Conte – now the prime minister of Italy – to work on an agreement that was pursued a few weeks before he took office. "With you – stressed the Ft – was an academic from Florence little known when he was hired in May 2018 to provide legal advice in favor of Fiber 4.0, a group of shareholders involved in a struggle for control of Retelit, an Italian telecommunications company last year. The main investor in Fiber 4.0 was the Athena Global Opportunities Fund, funded entirely for $ 200 million by the Vatican Secretariat and managed and owned by Raffaele Mincione, an Italian financier".

Now, the problem is that in the defensive line of the prime minister there is a hole not just. As he revealed last night Fourth Republic, program conducted by Nicola Porro broadcast on Rete 4, on May 13, the day before signing that consultancy, in a hotel in Milan, the lawyer had met Matteo Salvini and Luigi Di Maio. A meeting which, in fact, was a prelude to his official appointment as President of the Council. A detail certainly not trivial. Conte confirmed that he had received in the early days of 2018, when he was still a lawyer and had not been appointed chairman of the Board, by Fiber 4.0. the task of drawing up a legal opinion on the applicability of the so-called "Golden Power" regulation with reference to the transactions carried out with the company Retelit. The service of Fourth Republichowever, it highlights a clear "time gap" that could put the prime minister's defensive line in serious difficulty.

As he had already noted Free, after consulting some documents on the case, on April 20, 2018 Raffaele Mincione – which Conte says he does not know – submits the question of golden power to Retelit to the Gentiloni government. Giuseppe Conte gives his opinion on May 14, when he already knew (the day after he met Salcini and Di Maio), as confirmed by some public statements, that he could be nominated in the yellow-green government, in an important role. Conte justifies himself by stressing that he did not take part in the CDM of June 7 which authorizes the application of golden power on Retelit: however, that decision was taken well before the same June 7, as confirmed by the decree of the President of the Council.