Roberto Fico, former speaker of Italy’s lower house of parliament, is facing increasing pressure over a 10-metre boat moored at a military facility ahead of local elections in Campania, where he plans to run for president.
Mr. Fico, a prominent member of the inclusive Five Star Movement that built an image on anti-establishment and anti-privilege politics, owns a ship called the Paprika, according to ship registration records released by his Italian brother, Sen. Antonio Iannone.
Built in 2001, the motor yacht, with accommodation suitable for short cruises, was moored at the Air Force Academy Club on Nishida Island, near Naples, for 500 euros a year.
According to Italian media reports, the club is off-limits to civilians, with privileges granted only to those in important government positions.
In Campania, annual mooring fees for a 10-metre vessel like the Fico range between 2,000 euros and 7,000 euros, and reach 12,000 euros in exclusive locations like Capri, according to industry reports.
Despite his term ending in 2022, Fico reportedly continued to benefit from discounted military mooring facilities for an additional three years after leaving office.
Fico called the vessel “just a second-hand gozzo” (a traditional fishing boat from the region) and accused his opponents of campaigning “absurd and instrumental” attacks in the upcoming elections.
He said he requested the mooring for safety reasons when he was speaker of the House of Commons.
It is unclear when Fico bought the motor yacht, with Italian media claiming it was purchased either just before or after the dissolution of parliament in July 2022.
Other sources claim he may have bought a vessel worth between €120,000 and €150,000 after leaving office in October 2022.
Mr. Iannone questioned whether Mr. Fico properly declared the boat purchase on his parliamentary asset report, as required by a 1982 law, and said he may not have done so within three months of leaving office.
According to a report in Il Messegero newspaper, Fico told people around him that he only bought the peppers in April 2024, meaning he could not have declared them as an asset while he was a member of the House of Representatives.
But he was granted the right to moor at the Air Force Club in 2018, and critics accused Fico of discrepancies in his timeline and asked whether he had requested someone else’s boat be parked there instead.
Senator Sergio Rastrelli, also from the Italian Brotherhood party, submitted a parliamentary question to Defense Minister Guido Crossetto, asking him to explain his comments about “illegal” moorings at military installations.
“If this is true, we are in very serious trouble. No one can consider themselves above the rules and institutions of the state,” Rastrelli said in a statement.
Who else was condemned in Europe?
The controversy has been compared to similar scandals across Europe involving politicians’ luxury assets.
In France, conservative presidential candidate François Fillon’s 2017 campaign collapsed after it was reported that he received suits worth 48,500 euros from luxury Parisian tailor Arnis between 2012 and 2017.
Fillon, who also served as Prime Minister of France, was later found guilty of embezzling public funds to pay for parliamentary activities that his wife and children allegedly did not engage in, and in June 2020 he was sentenced to five years in prison, suspended for three years.
Mihalis Liapis, Greece’s former transport minister, was arrested in December 2013 for driving a luxury Volkswagen Touareg jeep with fake license plates and no insurance. The man told police he had made the homemade plate “so he could go on a quick ride.”
Liapis, who also served as culture minister, was sentenced in December 2013 to a four-year suspended prison sentence and a fine of 3,000 euros.
Can Fico win in Campania?
Fico, a native of Naples, is not related to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, but started out as one of the early local supporters of the Five Star Movement, known for its call to “open parliament like a tuna can”. After he was elected speaker of the parliament, he famously took a public bus to the parliament.
Local elections in Campania, Italy’s third most populous region, will be held on November 23rd and 24th.
Fico is running as a center-left coalition candidate, uniting the Five Star Movement, the center-left Democratic Party (PD), the Green Party-Left Alliance (AVS), and several Civic Lists, aiming to unite the traditionally divided left in the southern region.
Opinion polls released last week showed Fico holding a wide lead over his center-right opponent, Edmondo Cirielli.
The Corriere della Sera poll shows Fico’s approval rating at 53% to Chirrieri’s 42.5%, but the Repubblica poll, which combines data from Noto and SWG, shows Fico’s lead even higher: 54.5% to Chirrieri’s 42.5%.
Euronews has contacted the Five Star Movement for comment.
