ROME — The Senate has voted in favour of the arrest of Antonio Caridi, the senator accused of being heavily involved in a senior ‘Ndrangheta branch and of representing the organisation’s interests in the Senate.

 The Senator joined Forza Italia last November, and was a deputy regional coordinator in Calabria under Silvio Berlusconi. He intervened to proclaim his own innocence, but to no avail.

 "The accusation made against me is unjust and disconcerting," Caridi told the Senate. "I am innocent and have never taken advantage of my role in Parliament or struck pacts with organised crime."

 The motion received 154 votes in favour, 110 against, and 12 abstentions, and was done by secret ballot following the request of senators of the GAL party, despite the Democratic Party’s request that the ballot should be an open one. 

 After the arrest was carried through, members of the GAL party said that the Calabrian politician would turn himself into Rome’s Rebibbia jail. 

 Notwithstanding the outcome of the vote, proceedings in Madama Palace were anything but smooth. President of the Senate Pietro Grasso’s decision to switch around the order of proceedings to vote on the arrest before amendments on the Wiretapping law caused much disapproval from the likes of ALA , Forza Italia and the centre-right, as well as being a source of embarrassment for the Democratic Party. 

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