Delmastro case on the eve of the referendum, Meloni defends him: "He stays in his position"

"What can be said to Undersecretary Delmastro is that perhaps he should have been more cautious, but from this to suggesting that Undersecretary Delmastro, who is under protection for his work against organized crime, has connections to the mafia is a big leap."

This was stated by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in response to a question about the case of Andrea Delmastro, which has erupted in recent hours. "So he remains in his position?" she is asked. "Yes," is Meloni's response.

The matter concerns the Undersecretary of Justice, Andrea Delmastro, and his alleged dealings with the daughter of Mauro Caroccia, Mauro Caroccia who was definitively convicted of mafia crimes in the context of an investigation into the Senese camorra clan.

The united opposition has attacked Prime Minister Meloni: she was aware of the "matter for a month". And the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein asks the occupant of Palazzo Chigi to "take a clear stance" and, above all, to do so before the referendum. 

"I read that Secretary Schlein knows from the press that I knew about this a month ago, which amuses me greatly, because I discovered the Delmastro matter from the press and I find out from Schlein that she read it in the press, that I knew about it a month ago," Meloni replied from Brussels.

"Perhaps we should also question a certain way of doing journalism, given that I learned it from the press. So I couldn't have known about it for a month. I don't know what Elly Schlein has read, but she certainly read a fake news, because that's what we're talking about," she added.

Even the leader of the Five Star Movement, Giuseppe Conte, is asking the Prime Minister not to stand by and to "assert the primacy of politics": "Delmastro absolutely must resign, how can a Prime Minister keep him in his position?". Angelo Bonelli of Avs speaks instead of a situation of "unprecedented gravity" and cites another element that implicates the undersecretary: "Delmastro did not inform the Chamber, as the law requires, that he owned shares in a company. Every deputy is obliged to do so. Why didn't he?". This question is joined by those from party colleague Nicola Fratoianni regarding his relationship with the Caroccia family. And online, a photo has also emerged showing the two in one of the restaurants previously managed by the convicted. The atmosphere therefore remains explosive in the immediate eve of the two-day referendum.