"What should I say? Because it was within our competence to do so." Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said this during a tour of the pavilions at Eicma, the two-wheel exhibition, responding to those who asked her about the appointment of Trifone Altieri to the Anac, the National Anti-Corruption Authority, as the new president. An appointment that sparked criticism from the opposition.
"I read with dismay and disbelief the news of the appointment of the Northern League member Altieri to the Anac: a very serious fact, the appointment of a politician at the head of an authority that must supervise the operations of politics had never occurred. The politician in question is also a Northern League member close to the minister who is among the first controlled by anti-corruption, it is a very serious precedent among other things in a very delicate phase in Italy for infrastructures, tenders and contracts, including the Bridge over the Strait and the Housing Plan", says PD MEP Irene Tinagli, president of the commission for the housing emergency in Brussels.
"This appointment goes hand in hand with another that I find very questionable: the government has appointed Salvini's right-hand woman at MIT, Elisabetta Pellegrini, as commissioner for the third pillar of the housing plan, the most delicate one, which will entrust a series of benefits to investment funds, including foreign ones. Pellegrini herself will have enormous powers to derogate from various regulations as well as powers to prevent and monitor corruption." For Tinagli "all this is astonishing. Salvini is playing bingo with two controllers who, in one way or another, he himself controls: it may be that these maneuvers serve to politically prop up the government in an anti-Vannacci key, but with what consequences for the country? Salvini raises the price, and Meloni gives in without batting an eyelid, but those who will pay this price are the Italian citizens".
"The appointment of a party man, the Northern League member Nuccio Altieri, as president of the Anac is an irresponsible and indecent act of the Meloni government. We are under attack on power by Fdi, Lega and FI", say the M5S representatives in the Constitutional Affairs and Justice commissions. "This choice - they add - seals the government's intolerance towards any form of public control and balance between powers and bodies of the State. In this legislature the centre-right has already dismantled the powers of the Court of Auditors and various investigative tools against white collar crimes; it has systematically attacked the judiciary trying to undermine its independence and autonomy, but the citizens have said no; it has attacked the Bank of Italy, the Parliamentary Budget Office and any other body that has criticized the government's actions."
For the parliamentarians of the M5s "among the victims of the Meloni government's attacks was also the Anac: those with a good memory remember the attacks, in particular by the League, against President Busia who in 2023 criticized the new Procurement Code, one of the pieces of the plan with which the government dismantled the legality safeguards. And now the circle is closed with a Northern League member at the top of the Anac. What qualifications does Altieri have for to fill the role? Perhaps his long career in the ranks of the FI, PDL, Conservatives and Reformists and the League? A perfect candidate to lobotomize the Anac and put it at the service of the interests of the politics it commands. To lead the Anac, our opposition to this appointment will be very strong."
"The government wants to build great works, but seems increasingly impatient with those who have to check that everything is done in compliance with the law", observes M5s deputy Agostino Santillo, vice-president of the Environment commission.
"The procedure for appointing Nuccio Altieri as president of the ANAC - states Santillo - is yet another sign of an executive that considers controls a nuisance and transparency an obstacle. Public procurement is a very delicate area, where billions circulate and where criminal infiltration is just waiting for the control measures to become weaker. Weakening the Anti-corruption Authority means exposing the country to very serious risks, just as the government is pushing for pharaonic works and increasingly permissive procedures. Between direct assignments, exemptions and lightened controls, the border between simplification and gift to businessmen becomes dangerously thinner. With the launch of this appointment procedure, the government seems to want to place the controller under political protection, moreover going against those who have always done an excellent job such as Giuseppe Busia, also recognized at an international level, as demonstrated by his election in 2024 as president of the Network for Integrity, the global network that contributes to the global anti-corruption agenda to the stables."
"That of Meloni and Salvini is a conception of the institutions that we strongly reject, siding alongside honest citizens and businesses. The mafias are waiting for nothing but open doors, and this nomination, which we ask them to withdraw immediately, risks opening some of them", concludes the M5s exponent.
"While Italians are waiting for answers on the high cost of energy, the government yesterday gave the green light to two shameful Lega designations", writes Davide Faraone, vice-president of Iv-Casa Riformista, on social media. "I am referring to Alberto Bagnai at the Antitrust, to the designation of the deputy Giulio Centemero as Consob commissioner, to the former parliamentarian Nuccio Altieri as president of the National Anti-Corruption Authority. Since that was not enough, in recent weeks Salvini also found a place in the port authorities for Mirco Carloni and Annalisa Tardino. The wonderful detail is that Antitrust, Consob and ANAC are independent authorities, designed to be autonomous from politics, precisely because they have to monitor the markets and guarantee compliance with the rules even when those in government violate them. If they become a terrain of occupation for the parties, the very reason why they exist is lost. The votes decrease, and perhaps the seats increase.
