“While waiting for justice to complete its journey, without ever escaping the critical scrutiny of the judicial authority, I speak again, returning from the exile in which I had chosen to stay”. The former president of the Puglia Region, Nichi Vendola, writes on Facebook, suggesting his return to politics. Vendola was sentenced in the first instance to 3 and a half years in the trial on the alleged environmental disaster caused in Taranto by the former Ilva.
«Even from the margins of the scene – he explains – I would like to continue offering a point of view that derives from an inexhaustible political passion. I waited from the Court of Taranto, after 8 years of trial, to be returned to this story and to the absolute correctness of my actions. This was not the case. I will await the outcome of the appeal with the same conviction. But unlike in past years I will not give up talking about the things that are most dear to me ».
Vendola believes “it is urgent to raise the level of public debate in the light of the lessons of the pandemic, which reveal the fragility of human existence, but also the folly of a development model centered on the domain of profit and environmental irresponsibility, and that to today they see the multiplication of inequalities as a disruptive effect ».
The former governor explains that “the reason for my departure from the public scene is linked to the involvement, for me dramatic and unexpected, in the investigation into Ilva. In recent years I have chosen to defend myself in the trial and not in the trial, also renouncing to react to the political-media campaign that took place in parallel with it. I think that the transfer of the trials from the courts to the talk shows and the consequent media pressure harm justice ».