Case Santanchè, government ok on the agenda of the Pd in ​​which Visibilia is mentioned

ROME, JUNE 28 – The government has given a favorable opinion to an agenda of the Democratic Party to the labor decree, presented in the Chamber, which commits the executive “to sanction operators who have fraudulently used” the Covid redundancy fund, among which is explicitly mentioned, «Visibilia Editore, a company listed on the Stock Exchange, at the time controlled with 48.6 percent of the shares by Senator Santanchè».

Chiara Gribaudo’s first signature on the agenda states in the introduction that “during the dramatic phase of the pandemic, the State had to prepare a wide range of extraordinary measures to support the economy, largely paralyzed by the need to prevent spread of Covid-19, with the deployment of huge financial resources from the public budget”. As it immediately emerged «there were no lack of deplorable cases of improper, if not downright fraudulent, use of these provisions; in particular, many reports concerned the benefit of the extraordinary Covid fund, i.e. the instrument that made it possible to partially protect the incomes of workers of companies forced to suspend activities, avoiding the risk of disastrous layoffs and also ensuring that patrimony of professionalism that it allowed businesses to be ready for the resumption of activities and which produced a very important rebound in our GDP in 2022; several companies used the extraordinary Covid cash even without having had contractions of activities and others even used the cash while continuing to employ their employees in the ordinary performance of their work services.

According to what was reported in some newspaper articles last November and according to what emerged from the recent journalistic investigation carried out by the television program Reports, «among the companies that have improperly received the extraordinary Covid fund, without having the right to it and continuing to make their staff work, would also include the “Visibilia Editore”, a company listed on the Stock Exchange, at the time controlled with 48.6 percent of the shares by Senator Santanchè; according to some documents collected by a specific investigation by Consob, it would appear that several workers, even with top management roles, would never have been informed of their placement on layoffs, even at zero hours, and would never have stopped working; if confirmed”. Events, these, “which would highlight conduct that is seriously harmful to workers’ rights and a substantial illegitimate use of the extraordinary tools to support workers’ income during the pandemic”.

According to a study by the parliamentary budget office, in the year 2020 the percentage of hours used for Covid, without a drop in turnover, was estimated at 27 percent, corresponding to around 2.7 billion euros of expenditure that could have been saved in the presence of correct behaviors. The agenda “commits the Government to adopt any useful initiative in order to strengthen controls on the appropriate use of the extraordinary Covid fund, as well as the other provisions envisaged during the pandemic phase, and to sanction operators who have used it fraudulently, recovering the unlawfully received amounts with the utmost promptness”. Undersecretary Maria Teresa Bellucci (Fdi) gave a favorable opinion on behalf of the government.