I don't control RAI says Salvini

(ANSA) - Modena, January 23 - Opposition nationalist League leader Matteo Salvini on Thursday said he did not control RAI after the State broadcaster was accused of giving him an electoral platform during the halftime break of the Italian Cup quarter-final between Juventus and Roma Wednesday night.
    During the break in the match, RAI broadcast a spot for Salvini's appearance later that night on talk show Porta a Porta.
    During the spot, the rightwing strongman and former interior minister urged voters to get behind the League's candidate for Emilia Romagna governor in Sunday's elections, Lucia Borgonzoni.
    In a reparatory move, RAI Uno director Stefano Colletta said centre-left Democratic Party (PD) leader Nicola Zingaretti would be given a similar platform during an ad break in tonight's episode of the wildly popular priestly sleuth sitcom Don Matteo.
    "There will be an immediate reparatory act", he said, stressing that talk show host Bruno Vespa had admitted he made a mistake in letting Salvini make a stump speech during the soccer.
    Zingaretti said "it seems to me that RAI has recognised that a mistake was made, so our complaint was right," said Zingaretti.
    Salvini on Thursday denied having any influence over what RAI showed.
    "It's not as if I control the spots that go on air or RAI programming," he said.
    "Anything that happens, it's always my fault".
    Salvini urged the centre-left Democratic Party (PD)'s Emilia Romagna governor candidate, incumbent Stefano Bonaccini, to "complain to the PD about RAI programming," since the PD is part of the ruling coalition that recently appointed new RAI managers.
    "They've just named them, I'm in opposition," he said.
    Former premier Matteo Renzi, leader of the new centrist Italia Viva (IV) party which is a PD ally in government, called for a similar platform to be given to Bonaccini.
    "I think that Bruno Vespa has clarified that it was a mistake, but now I'd like to hope that (Bonaccini) will be given equal time during an episode of Don Matteo", he said, referring to the top-rated sleuthing priest played by Terence Hill.
    Another government ally, the small leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) party, said that Vespa had committed a "serious mistake".
    Bonaccini himself said it was a "glaring flouting of equal-time rules" and called for "sanctions".