Cabinet Secretary Maria Elena
Boschi has "cleared up" that she did not exert pressure on
bourse regulator CONSOB chief Giuseppe Vegas to try to stop a
merger between her father's Banca Etruria and the Banca Popolare
di Vicenza in 2014, Premier Paolo Gentiloni said Friday.
"I don't take the liberty of passing judgement on the
parliamentary commission of inquiry into the banking crisis, but
I hope the next few weeks are not dominated by rows over banks,"
he said.
Gentiloni added that Boschi, who was minister for relations
with parliament at the time of her meeting with Vegas, would be
a candidate for his Democratic Party in a general election in
March.
"I hope she wins," he said.
Also Friday, former Veneto Banca Ceo Vincenzo Consoli told
the parliamentary commission of inquiry into Italy's banking
crisis that Boschi was present at a meeting between the heads of
Banca Etruria and Veneto Banca in her family home at Easter 2014
but "she didn't proffer a word and left after a quarter of an
hour".
The meeting took place, he said, "because we found out that
Etruria had got a letter from the Bank of Italy similar to ours"
in which the central bank urged them to find a possible merger
partner of elevated standing, which was later identified as
Banca Popolare di Vicenza.
Boschi was minister for relations with parliament at the time
of the meeting, while her father Pier Luigi was vice president
of the Arezzo-based bank for a few months at that time.
Gentiloni's backing for Boschi did not stop a hail of
criticism from other parties, most of it from the
anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) which has repeatedly
called on the former minister to resign.
"Boschi has been taking the p*** out of the Italian people
for two years", said M5S bigwig Alessandro Di Battista.
Another M5S heavyweight, Carla Ruocco, said that "Boschi
can't deny putting pressure on Vegas".
The leader of the Brothers of Italy party, Giorgia Meloni,
said there was "a huge conflict of interest at the very heart of
government".
Back at the EU summit, Gentiloni went on to say that the
possibility of an election ticket in his name at the next
general election was "not realistic".
He said the hypothesis of a Gentiloni List "doesn't seem
realistic to me".
Gentiloni said "my resemblance to (former premier Lamberto)
Dini, a great personality (who led a transitional government
from 1995 to '96), is scant.
"I'm part of a party, I'm a leader in a party, on loan at the
moment to do the job I'm doing".
Gentiloni said it was his "mission" to complete the
legislative term that ends early next year.
Gentiloni was answering a question on the possibility of his
becoming a centre-left candidate to lead a new government.
The premier went on to say that Italy is not the black sheep
in the EU in terms of political stability.
"There is a high number of countries in which, sadly,
fragile majorities and minority governments exist," he
said after the EU summit.
"But there is no picture in which Italy is the black sheep
and the others are hyper stable," the premier said.
He said the Italian elections were being viewed like those
that took place in Germany or will happen in Catalonia, noting
that "the frequency of Italian governments is not a surprise".
He said "Indeed, some people talk of an Italianisation of
their situations, (while) it is an opposite dynamic".
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