Belgium, (Brussels Morning Newspaper) Brando Benifei, Andrea Cozzolino and Alessandra Moretti. These are the three names mentioned by Antonio Panzeri, among the icebergs of the European Qatargate scandal, before the Brussels magistrates. The three Piddini MPs, in fact, would have been elected to the EP in 2019 thanks to the decisive votes of the Moroccan community in their respective constituencies.
The decisive aspect is that it was the Moroccan ambassador in Warsaw, Abderrahim Atmoun, who directly asked Panzeri to indicate who “could help him in Italy”. To which the former deputy indicated the three names of the politicians of the Democratic Party: “These parliamentarians – Panzeri puts it in the minutes – were represented by their respective assistants, during an important meeting held in Rome with Atmoun and the person in charge of Moroccan citizens in the world, whose name I no longer remember”.
A confession that however was proven wrong by their respective Benifei, Moretti, and Cozzolino. But it is precisely the latter who is the recipient of the most serious accusations: “Cozzolino is always looking for financial resources,” says Panzeri. He always wants more money and asked me what we could do with Morocco.
That’s how I proposed to Atmoun to meet him in Warsaw”. As reported by La Repubblica, according to Panzeri “a real relationship has been created between the two. For example, Atmoun called me because Cozzolino was pestering him with money. He asked me if I could advance 10,000 euros for him and I did. I brought this sum to Cozzolino in 2021, which was not reimbursed to me “.
The news, however, does not end there. Panzeri decides to spill the beans further by naming other names and bringing up the MEP of Forza Italia, Lara Comi, and the former secretary of the CGIL, Susanna Camusso. The first, according to the reconstruction of the former “repentant” MEP, would have thrown away a bag with 60-70 thousand euros in cash; while the second would have received funding directly from Qatar for the campaign to lead the Global Union of Trade Unions in 2018.
In an attempt to reconstruct the facts, Panzeri specifies: “I was asked who the Italian candidate was (for the presidency of the Global Union of Trade Unions).
I said that I knew Camusso because we had been in the same union. They tell me they would have gladly met her and helped her. I spoke to her in Milan and she told me she was available for this meeting, which was held a few weeks later ”. There was talk of aid both to African trade unions and to the Middle East: “Previously, we had identified a figure of 600 thousand euros which was given to me in a bag and is a good part of the money found in my house. Then I learned that only 50 thousand was enough. I, therefore, had 500 thousand left which I kept“.
Susanna Camusso, however, denied the allegations in a trenchant way: “I was not asked to support Qatar in any way, nor was there ever any talk of money. I know that some donations have been received from other unions for poorer organizations. I wasn’t directly involved and I don’t know the details.”
Read the original story at: www.nicolaporro.it
