Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte was heard by a magistrate on Friday for almost three hours on the government's management of the coronavirus crisis, his press service told AFP.
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The prosecutor of Bergamo (north), Maria Cristina Rota, interviewed Giuseppe Conte for the primature in Rome, within the framework of an investigation into the delays last March in the creation of " red zones " in two municipalities in the north of the country , as the epidemic exploded. The magistrate and her team, who arrived at the prime minister's office early in the morning in front of the journalists' cameras, were also to hear the ministers of health, Roberto Speranza, and of the interior, Luciana Lamorgese.
The auditions for Conte et Speranza and Luciana Lamorgese " took place in a relaxed atmosphere of great institutional cooperation ", said Maria Cristina Rota briefly after leaving the office.
The prosecution of Bergamo, a martyr city in the Lombardy region and epicenter of the epidemic that struck Italy from early February to May and killed more than 34,000 people, is conducting several separate investigations related to this tragedy. One of them has hit the headlines in recent days in Italy. It concerns the delays in the creation of a " red zone " comprising two municipalities in this department, Nembro and Alzano Lombardo, particularly affected by the Covid-19.
Disclaimer
The central government and the leaders of Lombardy reject the responsibility for this delay, which had a dramatic impact with the saturation of the health system, the increase in mortality and the spread of the new coronavirus in this region. Wednesday evening, Giuseppe Conte had assured that he " would conscientiously report " to the prosecutor " of all the facts to his knowledge ", saying " not at all worried ". " All inquiries are welcome, " he said.
As part of this investigation, Silvio Brusaferro, president of the Italian Higher Institute of Health (ISS), who advised the government in the management of the crisis, was heard on Wednesday evening by the magistrates of Bergamo, but nothing n filtered on this hearing. The President of Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, and his regional health official, Giulio Gallera, were heard at the end of May, saying that the government decided to establish the " red zone " in Rome.
For the Minister of Regional Affairs, Francesco Boccia, the region could have set up the same " red zones " by itself, the law authorizing it. The whole question concerns who, from the central government or from Lombardy, should have taken this decision between March 3 and 9. The first "red zones" were established at the end of February by decision of the Italian government and concerned a dozen municipalities in Lombardy, notably Codogno, the city of " patient number one ".
In early March, the epidemic continued to spread, with two larger outbreaks, in the two municipalities of Nembro and Alzano, in the department of Bergamo. The Technical and Scientific Committee (CTS), which advises the government of Giuseppe Conte, then proposed to impose a " red zone " there, judging that the situation " worsened throughout Lombardy ", while the ISS advocated in turn the next day the same measure in these two municipalities.
According to Corriere, Giuseppe Conte once again met these experts on March 6, to finally choose to make the whole country a " red zone ", by a decree signed on March 7 and entered into force two days later.
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