Italian Chamber votes 206-133 to block prosecutors from using Delmastro chats with Senese clan-linked restaurateur

The vote

Italy's Chamber of Deputies approved the majority's contrary report by 206 votes in favor and 133 against, in a secret ballot requested by the opposition and granted by the chamber presidency. The vote denies Rome prosecutors authorization to use chat correspondence between Andrea Delmastro, a Fratelli d'Italia deputy and former undersecretary of Justice, and restaurateur Mauro Caroccia, who is investigated for money laundering and was already sentenced to 4 years for fictitious asset registration with the aggravating circumstance of facilitating the Senese camorra clan. Delmastro himself is not under investigation. He had already handed the chats over to prosecutors, but without parliamentary authorization they cannot be used in the proceeding.

The investigation and the FdI dossier

The chats relate to the probe into Cinque Forchette srl, the company behind the Bisteccheria d'Italia restaurant, where prosecutors wanted to verify whether the business was managed with resources from or destined for the Senese clan. Delmastro transferred his shares on November 24, 2025. According to an 8-page confidential dossier from Fratelli d'Italia's research office, obtained by Il Fatto Quotidiano, the party argued the prosecutors' request lacked a temporal and technical perimeter: it did not identify a time span, individual chats, accounts, phone numbers or selection criteria. The dossier warned of a risk of "exploratory profiling" across potentially thousands of messages, exposing personal, political and institutional conversations unrelated to the investigation, including a group chat between Delmastro and FdI directors in Biella.

Floor speeches and protests

FdI group leader Galeazzo Bignami defended Delmastro in his floor speech, saying mafiosi had said Delmastro should be blown up and that he was under escort for that reason. He credited Giorgia Meloni for restoring the 41-bis prison regime and for the arrest of Matteo Messina Denaro, and accused the opposition of attacking Delmastro only to get at Meloni. Futuro Nazionale leader Roberto Vannacci, speaking at a press conference at Montecitorio instead of from the floor, said his party would vote against authorization while hoping Delmastro would voluntarily publish his conversations.

The opposition staged visual protests after the vote. Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra deputies blindfolded themselves; Five Star Movement deputies raised phones under the majority's benches. Amid shouts and chants, the session was suspended.

Procedural clash and reactions

M5S leader Giuseppe Conte was reprimanded by acting chamber president Anna Ascani after demanding to know why no ministers or undersecretaries were present. Ascani interrupted him, explaining it was an internal corporis matter and that government benches were not required to be occupied. Conte attempted to recover, calling it a political rather than technical judgment, but the majority applauded the correction. Justice Minister Carlo Nordio, seated among majority benches rather than in government seats, was filmed laughing and applauding after the result, as documented in a video published by Fanpage.it. Chamber president Lorenzo Fontana had earlier barred members of the Authorization Committee from viewing the material sent by the Rome prosecutors, a decision backed by the majority and one that fueled weeks of political confrontation leading up to the vote.