Gentiloni to 'protect BoI autonomy' (6)

(ANSA) - Rome, October 19 - Sources at Premier Paolo Gentiloni's office said Thursday that the head of government's decisions would protect the independence of the Bank of Italy. On Tuesday, Gentiloni's Democratic Party (PD) caused a huge furore by presenting a motion in the Lower House that came out against Bank of Italy Governor Ignazio Visco over his handling of Italy's recent banking crisis, saying a "new phase was needed".
    Many saw the move as an attack on the independence of the central bank.
    The sources said that the premier's decisions will be "based on the prerogatives attributed to him by the law and inspired exclusively by the criteria of safeguarding the autonomy of the institute".
    Visco is coming to the end of his first term at the helm of the Bank of Italy and, before the PD motion, had been expected to get the nod for a second. PD leader Matteo Renzi said in an interview published Thursday that Gentiloni knew about a motion and had no objections.
    "The government was not simply informed: it was in agreement," ex-premier Renzi told Quotidiano Nazionale.
    "The government was not just aware of the parliamentary motion, those who know parliamentary law, know that this motion featured the government's opinion.
    "This was there and it was positive". Renzi added that he did not consider the motion an attack on the central bank's independence.
    "Doesn't parliament have the right to discuss things, while stressing there there is no personal issues with Governor Ignazio Visco?", he said.
    Lando Sileoni, the leader of bank workers union FABI, on Thursday blasted the motion. "(PD leader Matteo) Renzi is trying to make the Bank of Italy do the twist," Sileoni told an ANSA Forum.
    "I don't think it deserves this treatment. The election campaign has started". He added that the motion was a "position that seeks to pass the buck".
    Amid reports of a rift between Gentiloni and Cabinet Secretary Martia Elena Boschi, whose father was the deputy head of one of four failed and rescued banks, sources at Gentiloni's office voiced "full confidence" in Boschi.
    On Thursday evening Renzi said on Italian TV: "Between institutional etiquette and the rights of savers, I'm on the side of the savers." He said "then, what Gentiloni decides will have my support." Renzi said "I myself have wondered about the reason behind this furore" over the PD motion. "Politics has always discussed whether the bank is working or not." He said the only relationship he had with banks was "two mortgages" and the PD had no "skeletons in the cupboard". He said "we are the first to be interested in the banking commission working and clearing things up".
    Renzi said Visco's possible confirmation as governor "will not be a defeat for me". He said "I did not bring up the question of names".