Calls for Donzelli, Delle Vedove to quit amid Cospito row

(ANSA) - ROME, FEB 1 - Opposition parties on Tuesday were calling for Giovanni Donzelli and Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove, two MPs for Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FDI) party, to quit their institutional positions after the former allegedly revealed classified information in an inflammatory speech in the Lower House on Tuesday.
    During the speech, Donzelli referred to the case of jailed anarchist leader Alfredo Cospito, who has been on hunger strike for over 100 days to protest against the tough 41 bis jail regime he is being held under.
    Donzelli, who is a member of the Copasir parliamentary committee that oversees Italy's intelligence services, revealed that Cospito had talked to mafia bosses about getting the 41 bis abolished and that four lawmakers for the opposition centre-left Democratic Party (PD) had visited him in jail.
    He went on to ask whether the PD was "on the side of the State or that of the terrorists".
    Delmastro Delle Vedove, the justice undersecretary with the portfolio for the penitentiary department, allegedly passed on this information to Donzelli.
    "We have had confirmation that he (Donzelli) did not have access to classified documents at the (justice) ministry," said PD House whip Debora Serracchiani, one of the MPs who visited Cospito.
    "The right honorable Delmastro Delle Vedove has admitted that the revelation derives from him.
    "This is not just a problem regarding Donzelli, who cannot stay another second in a delicate role like that of (being on) Copasir.
    "There is also the case of Delmastro Delle Vedove, who cannot stay a second longer at the ministry".
    Carlo Calenda, the leader of the centrist Azione (Az) party, also called on Delmastro Delle Vedove to quit or be sacked.
    "Delmastro cannot stay at the penitentiary department," Calenda said.
    "Spreading classified wiretaps to be exploited for political ends is shameful, illegal and unprecedented".
    Donzelli, meanwhile, said that he has no intention of resigning from Copasir, while Delmastro Delle Vedove said the information passed on was from a penitentiary department report that was not classified.
    Cospito's protest has led to a wave of acts of vandalism in Italy and abroad and violent protests.
    His health is deteriorating fast but he has vowed to continue his hunger strike for as long as it takes to get 41 bis abolished. (ANSA).