Sports Minister Luca Lotti told
the Senate Wednesday that he strongly denied telling the head of
civil-service procurement agency CONSIP, Luigi Marroni, that
there was an investigation into the agency.
He accused those who said he had revealed the probe of
"calumny".
Lotti voiced full confidence in the judiciary and said he was
dealing with the probe with "my head held high".
He said the opponents of the ruling centre-left Democratic
Party (PD) and its former leader, ex-premier Matteo Renzi, were
using the probe "to strike at a political season".
Lotti added: "We won't let the Senate be used for media
lynching".
Lotti, Renzi's right-hand man, is facing a no-confidence
motion over the CONSIP probe from the anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S).
He is also facing a censure motion from a group that recently
split from the PD, the small Democratic and Progressive Movement
(MDP).
Lotti called them "culturally subaltern and politically
incorrect".
The MDP wants Lotti to be stripped of two of his three
portfolios, for the publishing and media industry and for the
interministerial economic planning committee (CIPE), leaving him
with just the sports brief.
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