He was wounded in the leg by a bullet fired from the gun of a Fratelli d'Italia deputy, Emanuele Pozzolo. It happened last night in the Biella area at the end of an evening of New Year's Eve celebrations. The injured, not seriously, is a 31-year-old, son-in-law of a man from the escort of the undersecretary of justice Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove. He was immediately taken by ambulance to the hospital in Ponderano, from where he was discharged later in the day. The Biella prosecutor's office, in agreement with the carabinieri, has started the investigations.
From an initial reconstruction it appears that the shot was fired from a mini-pistol, a regularly held North American arms LR22, which Pozzolo was showing to some of those present. "I confirm that the shot went off accidentally but it was not me who fired," the MP said.
The episode was set in Rosazza, a town in the Upper Cervo Valley that has less than a hundred residents and that tourist promoters love to present as "one of the most mysterious villages in Italy": thanks to certain real or presumed esoteric and Masonic influences in the architecture wanted, according to tradition, by an illustrious citizen of the past, Federico Rosazza, senator of the Kingdom of Italy and member of Mazzini's Young Italy.
The mayor of the town is Francesca Delmastro, sister of the undersecretary. For the party, which was also attended by the member of the government together with his entourage, the premises of the Pro Loco had been rented.
Emanuele Pozzolo, 38 years old, is originally from Vercelli. He, too, had spent the evening in Rosazza, but had waited for New Year's Eve in the family home, and had stopped by for a greeting late at night, when the party was in its final stages. As it turns out, he had a mini-revolver with him that he decided to show to the people he was talking to: The weapon passed from hand to hand and at a certain point a shot went off that reached the leg of one of those present, the husband of the daughter of an agent of the escort assigned to Delmastro.
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I was not present because I was outside, in the square, picking up some bags with food products that we had shared. On the way back they told me everything. I made sure that help had been called. My escort advised me to go, but I was in no danger and stayed. Fortunately, the boy got away with a prognosis of about ten days. But the story could have had another implication."
Comments from opposition politicians are pouring in on the Rosazza incident. "It seems like a third-rate film but it's reality," says Nicola Fratoianni (Italian Left), while Angelo Bonelli (AVS) speaks of "the Wild West in Delmastro's house." We expect Giorgia Meloni to intervene to clarify and take the consequent measures," says Democratic Party member Debora Serracchiani, adding that "in a normal country you resign for much less." Democratic Party Senator Simona Malpezzi expressed the same sentiment: "This is not normal." The Democrat Andrea Orlando publishes on social media a photo of the New Year's Eve dinner he attended and comments: "No one brought a gun".
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