We have received and are publishing a statement from Nicola Renzi (Repubblica Futura) regarding the recent investigation affecting San Marino’s Giochi del Titano.
After the disaster of the DES (Special Economic District), the shocking case involving a paedophile, and the Bulgarian affair, we thought we had hit rock bottom: and yet here comes the new gaming scandal. Let’s be clear: as someone who believes in due process, I will wait for the investigations to conclude and for the judicial proceedings to run their course, but there is no denying the umpteenth media storm and reputational blow now engulfing our country. Is it really possible that this Government can’t get anything right, and that every dossier turns into a Caporetto?
Right at the moment when the association agreement could have opened new prospects for a sector that – whatever one’s views on it – is making, and could make, a considerable contribution to state revenues, this latest scandal can only leave us bewildered and worried.
The questions that naturally arise concern what actually happened, whether the Government – or parts of it – had greater or lesser knowledge of what took place, and the safeguards (the much-touted “antibodies”) that our country’s system is supposed to have.
Preparing to implement the EU association agreement means, first and foremost, identifying those niches, those fields, in which, thanks to equivalent market rules, the Republic can play a special and particularly attractive role. In short, we should choose certain sectors in which to specialise and aim to become – thanks also to our legislative agility and small size – leading players.
It is dispiriting to see that instead we keep making headlines for petty misdeeds, if not outright alleged serious wrongdoing.
The government appears to be clearing its conscience and washing its hands of the matter with a terse statement, so weak as to be unacceptable. Together with the other opposition parties, we have requested a precise and detailed account of what happened and, above all, of what the Government, as sole shareholder, intends to do about it.
The priority now is to safeguard part of our economy, the workers and the related supply chain, who have long worked in this sector with skill and dedication. To do so, we must face the problems realistically, not with the usual buck-passing.
Nicola Renzi (Repubblica Futura)
