by Simona Brandolini and Marco Imarisio
In an email on November 24, the Pd MP called for a vote against part of the resolution that claimed Doha won the World Cup thanks to corruption
“Look, it’s just a political issue, I really believe in what I wrote.” That’s what Andrea Cozzolino claimed in the internal chat of the members of the Democratic Party. His colleagues had not too secretly accused him of making the entire Italian delegation look bad because of the e-mail to the entire Socialist and Democrat Group. In it, just before the November 24 vote on the human rights resolution at the World Cup, he called for a vote against part of the text that claimed Qatar won the World Cup thanks to corruption. “The European Parliament should not impeach any country without evidence from the relevant judicial authorities,” the email reads.
In recent days, the episode has been reread and interpreted with the usual delicacy, and it will remain so for a long time in the face of the latest revelations of his assistant Francesco Giorgi, who said he suspected that employer took money through Antonio Panzeri. For this reason, too, the Brussels public prosecutor’s office considers him a possible “third man” in the investigation.
Cozzolino broke the silence yesterday. Locked up in his Strasbourg office all morning, he came out with a statement that is only rightly reported as even the presumption of innocence is questioned in this affair. “I am outraged by the court events I hear from the press, which severely undermine the credibility of the European institutions. On a personal level, I have no connection to the investigation. The Neapolitan MEP from the Democratic Party says he has not been investigated, has not been interrogated, has not been subjected to searches and has never had relations with the Moroccan ambassador to Poland, suspected corrupt Abderrahim Atmoun, and with the intelligentsia from Rabat.
«I have never met people associated with security agencies or services, nor have I ever pursued personal interests, advantages or benefits in my political life. I am ready to protect my history and my honor wherever I go”. It is his fate to have been the subject of speculation since the Naples days, when he was considered the perennial candidate for any office. Antonio Bassolino described his ambition with a scathing joke “Don’t tell Cozzolino there are condominium elections in the building across the street because that’s where he’s running.” But that’s another, much heavier story. It becomes almost normal to look back, the first to do that are his peers, like Cozzolino well knows. Every word, work or omission risks becoming elements of suspicion. Like his failure to sign the question with a request for a written answer, which the bulk of the Italian left delegation after the phrases uttered by the Cup about the “Mental harm” of homosexuality and the fact that being gay is “forbidden” presented Ambassador of the World in Qatar Khalid Salman. A few days later the K lima tense in droi subcommittee on human rights. Labor Minister Ali Bin al-Marri is a guest in the room. Many S&D MEPs are ready to raise their voices. Cozzolino spoke first. He starts with a joke.
For football reasons, he has doubts about the upcoming World Cup because his Napoli are top of the table “and the two-month suspension of the championship is causing some problems”. It goes on like this. Lyrically. “The work that has been done in Qatar strikes me as impressive, especially the social dialogue. With international organizations, with NGOs, with trade unions. We must encourage this dialogue and this reform program. Woe betide if we, as international bodies like the European Parliament, put obstacles in the way of this development at the moment when it begins. That would be a mistake.” They’re words that mean everything and nothing. But Cozzolino knows that’s how his world works. Time ago. The Neapolitan Democratic Party MEP has come a long way, from the anti-Camorra student movement to the FGCI Bread and party For years he was considered Antonio Bassolino’s dolphin, even if relations with the former mayor of Naples broke up at the time Regional councilor in 2000, super councilor in 2005. Only when he tried to become deputy mayor of Rosa Becoming Russo Iervolino a business was discontinued due to a conflict of interest His wife is an entrepreneur and runs various businesses in the city.
The annus horribilis, for him and for the Pd, is 2011. Cozzolino is trying to be mayor. It is the terrible chapter of the primaries of the scandal, that of the rows of Chinese in front of the polling stations, that made Walter Veltroni say: “Either they are democratic Chinese or something is wrong”. On the one hand, Cozzolino, who according to the data would have won, on the other, Giorgio Napolitano’s political son, Umberto Ranieri, who is crying out for cheating. The party is commissioned. Since then and for the next ten years, the Democratic Party in Naples has lost all elections. Meanwhile, Cozzolino took the first flight to Brussels.
December 16, 2022 (change December 16, 2022 | 08:48)
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