Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè on
Thursday faces a no-confidence motion in the Lower House, amid
criminal probes into her business activities, after Deputy
Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini survived a
separate no-confidence vote on Wednesday.
The motion against Salvini, presented over his League party's
ties with the United Russia party, was defeated with 211 votes
against and 129 in favour.
Before Tuesday's vote, the League said that the agreement it had
with the ruling party in Russia party was no longer valid
following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Salvini has also been under fire for saying that "a people is
always right when it votes" following Russian President Vladimir
Putin's recent landslide re-election and for failing to blame
Putin for the death in a Siberian prison of opposition leader
Alexei Navalny.
Salvini has expressed admiration for Putin several times in the
past, but he has also condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The vote on Santanchè is expected to have a similar outcome to
Tuesday's.
The minister has said she would quit if she were prosecuted.
In the most serious case, she could face charges of aggravated
fraud against the Italian national pensions and social security
institute INPS over alleged irregular management of funds made
available for redundancy payments during the Covid-19 pandemic,
following a probe into allegedly improper business practices
related to her former Visibilia publishing empire.
News of the investigation emerged last summer after
investigative journalism programme Report on Rai 3 reported that
businesses linked to Santanche' , a leading member of Premier
Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party,
allegedly failed to pay suppliers and dismissed workers without
giving them redundancy payments, as well as allegedly improperly
receiving COVID aid, prompting calls for her to quit.
The 62-year-old minister, who sold her stake in Visibilia when
she became minister, has denied all wrongdoing. She has said she
is innocent and has vowed to clear her name if the cases come to
court.
The other cases involve alleged false accounting, alleged
fraudulent bankruptcy, and alleged money laundering.
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