Ilaria Salis against former collaborators, 'used for their interests'

They have known each other for many years, they participated in the same struggles in the Milanese movements and "like many others they took part in the solidarity campaign built around my story", often going to Budapest during the 15 months of his detention. For this reason, Ilaria Salis had also chosen Valentina Dadda and François Gelmetti as local collaborators when she was elected to the European Parliament, but working with them soon became "impossible" because "they used my mandate as their own resource rather than an activity for the benefit of those who had elected me".

The appeal process relating to the termination of the employment relationship with his two former collaborators who obtained compensation of 300 thousand euros at first instance, with a sentence now suspended, will open tomorrow in court in Milan, and the Avs MEP looks back on "a very painful story" which led to a conviction which he is "confident" he can overturn. "When I was elected, they began to collaborate with me in the forms and methods that they considered most appropriate, therefore chosen by them", explains Salis to ANSA, but "as the months passed I realized that they were using this role to try to influence my mandate and exerted psychological pressure on me, leveraging the fact that they had supported me in prison, to influence my political choices and direct public resources towards their interests".

The relationship of trust with them "crumbled" and "they used my mandate as their resource rather than an activity for the benefit of those who had elected me", she continues, and therefore "I found myself in the situation of having two collaborators paid with public money who did not respond to emails and did not show up at meetings, and even demanded that I finance their activities. When all this became evident, I did the only thing I could do".

Salis therefore ended the relationship early "searching for a possible conciliation for months, but there was a total closure towards any hypothesis and they told me that they would do everything they could to destroy me. Total closure is therefore a euphemism". Contacted by ANSA, the lawyers Francesca Verdura, Tiziana Laratta and Sergio Romanotto, Dadda and Gelmetti's lawyers, preferred not to make statements before the hearing.

The two former collaborators then sued Salis, winning at first instance "because I learned that there was a trial only after the sentence had been issued, without being able to bring my reasons to the courtroom given that the appeal had been wrongly notified with the procedure reserved for unavailable persons, which I am evidently not". After failing to pay around 7 thousand euros in legal fees, her account was seized "which was then unblocked after two days, when I paid that money. And, again, I wonder why the normal rules for notifications were not respected in that case too".

Salis finally defines as "lies, allegations and defamations" everything contained in an anonymous document signed by 'former workers of Ilaria Salis' which talks about a "toxic climate", "meaningless orders" and "daily mobbing" spread online: "We don't know who wrote it, it is full of falsehoods with the obvious aim of discrediting me. But, if the author comes out, he will have to answer for it".

"I wanted to talk about this matter for transparency towards all the people who trusted me - concludes Salis - also because the usual mud machine was unleashed with the aim of taking away the energy and time that I would like to dedicate to the work for which I was elected. Finally tomorrow I will bring all my reasons to the courtroom in a calm and respectful manner for everyone".