The Italian trade unionist Luca Visentiniinvolved in the corruption scandal investigation Qatargatein the European Parliament, was dismissed from his post on Saturday general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)the organization announced in a press release.

The ITUC General Council “has decided that Luca Visentini no longer has its confidence as General Secretary” and an “extraordinary World Congress” will be organized “as soon as possible to elect a new general secretary,” the statement said. “The events of the last few months have significantly damaged the reputation of the ITUC (…) We are determined to protect the ITUC from any form of undue influence, even from any suspicion of influence” commented ITUC President Akiko Gono.

The Belgian newspaper “Le Soir”, in its article today, recalls that Luca Visentini, who is accused of corruption, admitted that he received almost 50,000 euros in cash from the former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri to finance his election campaign. Belgian police had been monitoring Panzeri’s apartment and had recorded conversations with the former ITUC general secretary. Luca Visentini, 54, was arrested on December 9, as part of the Qatargate investigations, on charges of corruption and money laundering and was released after two days in custody.

Former head of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), Luca Visentini was indeed seeking the post of general secretary of the global body, the ITUC, which represents around 200 million workers worldwide. He was elected General Secretary of the ITUC on 22 November 2022 at a conference in Melbourne (Australia) and 20 days later he was arrested by the Belgian police.

The external audit of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), completed on 10 February, and that of the ITUC’s special committee of inquiry, delivered in early March, are damning of Luca Viezdini and point to systemic failures (in particular in the management of funding in cash) on the part of the two organizations. Evidence was found for an amount of 43,000 euros, of which 10,000 euros were transferred to the cash registers before the cash transfer detected by surveillance by the State Security. Finally it is pointed out that Visentini “regularly used his position of power to obtain particularly high and expensive overnight stays, as well as visits to extremely luxurious restaurants”.