"I have faith in the jury and I want justice."
The leader of the M5S Giuseppe Conte shows optimism when, intercepted by reporters in Montecitorio, with dozens of papers under his arm, he leaves the meeting of the Honorary Jury where he was listened to for about an hour and a half.
It was he who asked for the jury to be convened (this is the 33rd time this has happened in Republican history), following the accusations made against him by Giorgia Meloni on 13 December in the Senate chamber.
The Prime Minister had said that it was Conte who had given his consent to the ESM reform "against the opinion of Parliament, without telling the Italians, without showing his face and with the cover of darkness".
Complete with the waving, in the hemicycle of Palazzo Madama, of a fax which, according to him, would have proved that the consent to the ESM would have been given even "the day after the resignation of the Conte government, when it was in office only for the current affairs".
From left, the president of the M5s Giuseppe Conte and the prime minister Giorgia Meloni
The response from the M5S leader was harsh: "Do you know who brought the ESM to Italy? The Berlusconi government in August 2011 and you Giorgia Meloni were there as a minister, while I was still a lawyer. You were already there doing damage Lies upon lies."
Therefore, Conte had asked that the Honorary Jury be convened to demonstrate the falsity of the accusations made by the Prime Minister.
And, in fact, according to what we learn, for about an hour and a half, Conte would have delivered memories after memories, retracing all the times that the government and him first and foremost, as Prime Minister, would have spoken in Parliament about the ESM and about Banking and Monetary Union.
In all, he would have spoken in the House and Senate, including communications and questions, 14 times.
A number that would have risen to 30-40 times if the interventions of the competent ministers in the two Conte governments had been added to his: Giovanni Tria and Roberto Gualtieri.
"The activity of the jury of honor is classified", recalls the 5 Star MP, "but as you know - he says again, addressing the reporters who continue to question him about his hearing - I asked for the activation of this jury of honor because I believe that it is a parliamentary safeguard institution in extreme cases" as are the "false and lying statements which objectively offend the honor, not only of my personal one, but also of the government with respect to all the transparent and timely discussion activity carried out with the parliament".
And his objective is also not to create a precedent, because he would like "no parliamentarian" to be allowed ("Meloni was a deputy not only prime minister") to come to Parliament "to overturn the reality of the facts" .
The leader of the M5S then spoke of the "media power" of "serious and offensive accusations relaunched by all the news".
The Jury, which will now have to shed light on the matter, is chaired by Giorgio Mulè (FI) and is made up of Alessandro Colucci of Noi Moderati, Stefano Vaccari of the Pd, Fabrizio Cecchetti of the Lega and Filiberto Zaratti of Avs.
And he will have until February 9 to report to the Chamber on what has been decided.
In the next few hours it will be the turn of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to be heard, providing her version of events.
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