(supersedes previous)Premier
Matteo Renzi said at an Italian-Japanese bilateral meeting in
Florence Monday marking 150 years of ties that he was counting
on Japanese Premier Shinzo Abe's G7 leadership to boost world
growth.
"In less than a month, Japan will host the G7...I'm really
counting on Abe's leadership on economic growth," Renzi said.
Abe said "I and Matteo shared the awareness that the G7
countries are expected to accelerate structural reforms,
accompanied by a mobilisation of flexible fiscal policies, to
overcome the present crisis, prevent falling back into future
crises and stimulate world economic recovery".
He said the G7 would deliver a "strong message in this
direction".
Later during a visit to the southern city of Matera, which
is to be the 2019 European Capital of Culture, the Italian
premier extolled the need to invest in culture as a way to fight
the rise pf homegrown religious fundamentalism.
"We need culture and we need foreign policy," he said.
"Europe is in crisis, not because they're coming in to hurt us
from abroad but because there is an identity crisis going on in
our suburbs - fanaticism has grown in the hearts of our cities".
The premier also touched on crime and the Mafia.
"Fighting corruption without mercy means bringing the
culprits to trial," he said. "It doesn't mean saying 'they're
all the same, they all steal'. Those who say so are doing a
favour to the thieves, who must be put in jail".
Renzi was speaking after a row over ANM magistrates' union
chief Piercamillo Davigo, who said politicians hadn't stopped
stealing, just being ashamed of it.
The government has vowed to pass a law extending the
statute of limitations on many crimes, especially graft, to stop
so many trials timing out.
The premier also said there was an "emergency" in the fight
against "all forms of lawlessness, against the organised crime
of the (Sicilian) Mafia, the (Neapolitan) Camorra and the
(Calabrian) 'Ndrangheta".
Renzi recalled that on Saturday he paid his respects to
late Sicilian Communist politician Pio La Torre, who was gunned
down by Cosa Nostra in 1982 after he introduced the crime of
mafia conspiracy and framed a law on the seizure of organized
crime assets.
Renzi also recounted how United States President Barack
Obama laughed when he told him Italy has had 63 governments in
70 years.
"I don't want Italy to be laughed at," Renzi said. "I want
it to become a stable country where winners govern and citizens
choose".
Renzi's Italicum electoral reform law has changed the rules
to ensure the next general election produces a clear winner,
which has not always been the case in the past.
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