NAPLES -- Governor of the Campania Region, Vincenzo De Luca has been placed under investigation for statements he allegedly made during a Nov. 15 rally, addressing approximately 300 local administrators and urging them to procure ‘yes’ votes for the national referendum.

 In what started as the Public Prosecutor’s Office's decision to look into the facts they considered to be without suspect of law infraction on Nov. 24, has now turned into a hypothesis of a criminal act -- instigation into vote buying.

 De Luca allegedly addressed his Campania audience, tipping them towards a ‘yes’ vote in favour of the constitutional reform so as to avoid any repercussions on the government and thus maintain the relationship between the Campania Region and the central government where massive financing of projects in the region need to continue.

 Using folkloristic words about fried and grilled fish, De Luca apparently incited small town mayors to churn out ‘yes’ votes in exchange for the delicacies of the south, even at the cost of neglecting their institutional duties.

 The objective of the Republic’s office is to check if, in the shadows of the encounter held at the Ramada Hotel before the reform vote, there could have been a violation in the safeguard norm for voting.

 Besides being concerned about the governor’s invitation to mayor Franco Alfieri to bring citizens to the urns and vote using any means, warning him not to “come back here with any fewer votes than those promised,” the legal office is also investigating his having urged each mayor to send him a fax with a number count of ‘yes’ votes before the nation went to the polls.

 Although no proof of any faxes sent have surfaced, Public Prosecutor Stefania Buda has instructed the Finance Guard to look into any information that could shed light on the case.

 Furthermore, the judiciary department has also started summoning witnesses, like Paolo Russo, the governor’s trusted official spokesman who was by his side during De Luca’s 25-minute monologue last month. Called in as someone who is informed about the facts, his testimony could reconstruct roles and background of the organizational set up designed to convince southerners to vote ‘yes’.

 Others like Piero De Luca, the regional committee coordinator for the south and the governor’s son, could equally be called for testimony in the upcoming days.

 With the recent news of the investigation interrupting the debate on a motion of censure at the regional council, the governor had no qualms about saying the council should be ashamed of themselves, “the Campania Region should not be paralysed because of a ‘light-hearted’ comment.”

 “So what? Mayors were asked to go door-to-door. What were we supposed to say given the referendum aroused so little enthusiasm? We’re talking about something that’s silly. People should be ashamed of themselves; in Italy, you’ve distortd a joke that was said at the end of a meeting just for a laugh into a democratic issue,” he said. “A real instigation to vote buying is when you nominate people at the end of a legislature: that’s buying votes,” the government concluded.

 “It was necessary,” said the Mayor of Naples Luigi De Magistris, “to place the governor under investigation for alleged vote buying.” Taking distance from the methods used by the Democratic Party for their political dialect to urge people to vote ‘yes’, the city leader and former judge said, “I cannot comment on facts that I don’t even know are true, but I believe there was an obligation to investigate on what happened during that election campaign, regardless of any petitions.” 

 With high stakes over the constitutional reform and questionable fair play, the region overlooking the Tyrrhenian Sea nonetheless marked a record 70 percent of ‘no’ votes in the Dec. 4 referendum. Apparently, not many were convinced by temptation of fried fish.

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