MILAN (ITALPRESS) – The director of the Internal Revenue Service, Ernesto Maria Ruffini, is leaving his post. He announces this through the columns of Corriere della Sera, to which he entrusts the reasons for this choice. “The climate has changed. I am not taking the field, but I claim the right to speak,” he explains. “On Wednesday, I saw Minister Giorgetti to warn him of my intention to remit and thus allow the regular handover with whoever will be called to succeed me.” On his eventual descent into the field, Ruffini adds, “I’m not going down and I’m not going up anywhere.” On his reasons for this unexpected resignation, Ruffini comments, “It was the only way to remain myself. I am a lawyer who has been writing and attending public meetings for many years about what unites us, such as the Constitution and equality. I have read, however, that to speak about the common good would be a field choice. And that therefore I should either keep silent or leave office. My only compass over these years has been respect for the laws and for the mandate I have been given, because the deepest sense of the state is this: to be above the parties, to serve the common good. What has happened in recent days around my name describes a changed context from when I took office and also from when I agreed to stay. I draw the consequences.” Resignation that is also a reaction to a series of criticisms suffered by the agency from government men: “It had never happened to me to see public officials being pointed at as extortionists of a state lace. Or to hear that the Internal Revenue Service holds families hostage, as if it were a kidnapper. I have been silent so far, out of a sense of the state. Be careful, however: if the IRS itself is demonized, it strikes at the heart of the state; especially since the level of taxation is decided by the legislature, not the Agency. Personally, I have always thought that it is the evaders who harm honest citizens,” Ruffini concludes.(ITALPRESS).
Photo: Photogram Agency
