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The Chamber of Deputies denied the Prosecutor the authorization to acquire the chats of the deputy and former undersecretary of Justice Andrea Delmastro. The proposal of the majority rapporteur in the Authorization Committee was approved by secret ballot with 206 votes in favor and 133 against.
Protests from the opposition broke out immediately after the vote. The deputies of the 5 Star Movement got down from their seats and headed towards the majority benches with their cell phones raised, recalling the campaign #outsidechat. Amid shouts, chants and protests, the session was suspended.
The majority: «No obstacles to the investigations»
Tension had already grown during the discussion, in particular during the speech by Galeazzo Bignami of Fratelli d’Italia. The current president, Anna Ascani, intervened several times to call some opposition deputies to order.
The majority speaker Pietro Pittalis argued that the denial would not prevent the magistrates from continuing the investigations. “Defending article 68 means demanding that the law be respected,” he said, defining as “inconsistent and dangerous” the argument according to which the vote represents a shield to hinder the activity of the judiciary.
Pittalis also invited the opposition, if they considered the protection provided by article 68 of the Constitution to be outdated, to propose its revision. The speaker also recalled the precedents relating to the Open and Scarpinato cases.
Conte: «A shield for party friends»
During the explanations of vote, the leader of the 5 Star Movement Giuseppe Conte accused the majority of wanting to build “a shield for party friends”. “You are preparing to shield a party friend, compressing the right of defense of a citizen,” he stated.
At the end of his speech, the five-star deputies raised their cell phones in protest. A similar demonstration also took place in the Senate, where the session was suspended for a few minutes.
The parliamentarians of the Green Alliance and the Left blindfolded themselves during Elisabetta Piccolotti’s speech. “You can’t blindfold Italians,” declared the deputy. The bandages were later removed at the request of the presidency.
Schlein: «Let the magistrates work»
The secretary of the Democratic Party, Elly Schlein, accused the majority of using “double standards” on the issue of legality. «No one is asking this House to hold a trial. We only ask to let the magistrates do their job,” he said.
According to Schlein, the acquisition would concern “specific and delimited elements” and would be necessary to avoid compromising “a trial for facts related to the mafia”. The dem leader then asked why the majority decided to deny the authorization, despite Delmastro declaring that he had nothing to hide.
Mauro Del Barba of Italia viva is also against the Council’s report, according to which the Rome Prosecutor’s Office followed “an impeccable path”. The refusal, he argued, would risk transforming the protection provided by Article 68 “into a personal privilege”.
The leader of Futuro Nazionale, Roberto Vannacci, instead announced his vote against the authorization, defending the parliamentarian’s confidentiality but hoping that Delmastro would spontaneously make the conversations public.