Renzi blasts probe into Open Foundation

(ANSA) - Rome, November 27 - Ex-premier Matteo Renzi, the leader of the new, centrist Italia Viva (IV) party, on Wednesday blasted a criminal probe into Open, a Florence-based foundation set up to finance his political initiatives. "Who decides what a party is? The political world or the judiciary?," Renzi, who left the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), said via Facebook. "At this point a decisive contest for our democracy is being played out," said the former PD leader.
    "At this point we will call upon all the levels of the public institutions to establish whether parties are what is laid down in the Constitution, or they are what the Florentine magistrates have decided to define them as. "Two Florentine judges have decided that Open is not a foundation, it's a party.
    "And so the rules change retroactively".
    Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, the leader of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), reiterated his call for a parliamentary commission into the funding of political parties.
    "It's a priority for us," he said.
    "We'll ask for support to deliver it as soon as possible".