"Since the installation of this Government I have never authorized, as the delegated authority for the security of the Republic, any form of interception against politicians or journalists". This was stated by the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano, replying to the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi who in an interview with the newspaper la Repubblica said that "the democratic stability of a country" is at stake, referring to what is written in the book 'The powerful at the time of Giorgia', written by journalist Paolo Madron and Luigi Bisignani. "Senator Renzi appreciated the expected denial of Undersecretary Mantovano. Tomorrow Renzi will return to the subject in his editorial in Il Riformista". This is what Iv sources know in a note.
MANTOVANO TO RENZI: 'NEVER AUTHORIZED INTERCEPTIONS'
"The attention of the Government to avoid any improper use of this tool - continues Mantovano in a note - is demonstrated by the fact that it has proposed and had included in the 2023 budget law a rule (art. 1, paragraph 684, L. 29 December 2022 n. 197), which protects more effectively: 1) the secrecy of the information acquired during the activities. 2) the consistency of the activities carried out with the institutional aims of the Agencies. In particular, as a result of this regulatory change: - the discipline of preventive interception of the Services has become autonomous with respect to preventive police interceptions (pursuant to Article 226 of the Code of Civil Procedure); the power of verification by the judicial authority, i.e. the Attorney General of the Court of Appeal of Rome, on the operations carried out is expanded, given that the Agencies are required to deliver not only the "synthetic report" and the "mobile media" used, but also the "intercepted contents"; the obligations to destroy deposited material, which concerns all documentation delivered to the Attorney General, have been extended; The discipline on the tracking of telephone and telematic communications and on the acquisition of "external data" (e.g. personal data, printouts, etc.) has become more specific, with a maximum term - absent in the previous discipline - for the destruction of data acquired during the activity and for the delivery of the report of operations to the Attorney General". "According to Law no. 124/2007, - underlines the Undersecretary - the Delegated Authority is obliged to carry out a preventive screening on requests for interceptions, finalizing them to defend the independence, integrity, sovereignty of the Republic and democratic institutions, to protect against any threat, subversive activity and form of criminal and terrorist aggression, espionage and proliferation activities concerning strategic materials. Following the issuance of the delegation by the political authority, the directors of the Agencies formulate the request for authorization of the interceptions to the Attorney General. In the 7 months of activity of the Government, the release of the delegation was based on a precise and rigorous analysis of the requirements and conditions provided for by law, both for the strict relevance of the motivations to the purposes of information research, and for the identification of the subjects against whom the interception activities were addressed".
"Since
Senator Matteo Renzi evokes a scenario that, if true, would be very serious, the judicial authority will evaluate any possible assessment, to guarantee the institutions and the democratic order. As far as my competence is concerned, I have already communicated to the president of Copasir Lorenzo Guerini the willingness to provide any useful information, if he deems it appropriate". This was stated by the Undersecretary to the Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano, referring to an interview with the leader of Italia Viva Matteo Renzi. The former prime minister speaking of a passage of Bisignani's book in which reference is made to interceptions by the services to journalists and politicians underlines how the executive is at a crossroads: "The Government and the delegated authority Alfredo Mantovano - he observes - are faced with only two possible paths: to say that a lie has been written, officially denying. Or by coming immediately to explain to Copasir what happened".
