Santanchè faces no-confidence motion, Salvini survives his

(ANSA) - ROME, APR 4 - 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    Before Tuesday's vote, the League said that the agreement it had with the ruling party in Russia party was no longer valid following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.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. (ANSA).