(ANSA) - Rome, April 24 - Premier Giuseppe Conte said
Wednesday he had never been a pen pusher, repeating a retort he
made to Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini during a heated cabinet
meeting Tuesday night.
Amid continued tension between government partners the League
and the 5-Star Movement (M5S), Conte said "fractures are
repaired through talks".
On League Transport Undersecretary Armando Siri, under
investigation for allegedly taking a bribe from a Sicilian
windfarm king allegedly linked to Cosa Nostra's No.1 fugitive
Matteo Messina Denaro, Conte said "I can't say anything until
I've spoken to him".
The M5S have been demanding Siri step down to prove his
innocence while League leader Matteo Salvini has strenuously
defended Siri, who has not been charged and denies ever meeting
wind power entrepreneur Vito Nicastri.
Conte said the M5S position on Siri resigning was
"legitimate" and similar to the one Deputy Premier Luigi Di
Maio's movement had taken on a Rome council head of assembly,
Marcello De Vito, whom the M5S has ejected.
Conte said "I will listen to undersecretary Siri, I will look
him in the eye and I will make my decisions taking into account
the principle of presumed innocence to which I am very sensitive
as a lawyer.
"But I stress there is a principle of public ethics, for
which it is possible to take a political decision before a
definitive sentence".
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