Fiber, Conte: "Given an opinion when I didn't imagine becoming a premier, then I always abstained"

"In order to avoid any possible form of conflict of interest, even indirectly, once invested with the office of prime minister I abstained from any activity or from any form of formal and substantial involvement regarding the decision to exercise the golden power in the Retelit transaction, "he underlines.

"Moved by this scruple – the premier then recalled – I wrote to the general secretary pro tempore a letter, registered on June 6, 2018, with which I informed him of my determination to refrain from any act and, in any case, from participation in any form in this process. Therefore, I did not take part in the meeting of the Council of Ministers on 7 June 2018, during which the question was examined. I specify that the entire session of the CDM was chaired by the then vice president and interior minister, Matteo Salvini ".

It's still: "I give this House a final reflection. The discipline on conflict of interest referred to in law n. 215 of 2004 is not intended to prevent those who have had professional assignments or public positions from being able to subsequently take on government positions that can potentially lead them to intervene on issues already dealt with, directly or indirectly, in the context of previously held positions. Rather, the legislation introduces some safeguards to eliminate situations of incompatibility and to avoid that collective acts or resolutions can be adopted in situations of conflict of interest ".

"In this case – he continues – a situation of incompatibility certainly does not occur and as for the potential conflict of interests, where ever recognized, the remedy for the care of public interests is not distorted by a possible personal interest is the abstention. these rules that I followed scrupulously and extremely cautiously, refraining from participating in all the proceedings and resolutions concerning the company in question, both on June 7 (not participating in the Council of Ministers), and subsequently, during the sanction proceedings . And that's what I will continue to do in the event that proceedings concerning Retelit or its shareholders can request my participation ".