Renato Mazzoncini said Thursday that his dismissal as the CEO of Ferrovie dello Stato (FS) along with the rest of the board of the Italian rail company was down to the "decision of the new government to apply the spoils system".
On Wednesday Transport Minister Danilo Toninelli, a leading member of the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), announced he had sacked the board of FS and halted a planned merger between FS and motorway company ANAS.
In a letter to employees, Mazzoncini said the results of the last three years showed he had done a good job, with "the best balance sheets ever, with average profits of 645 million euros.
"Today the company is worth 2% of the country's GDP and employs 81,000 people directly and 240,000 indirectly," he added. Transport ministry sources rejected Mazzoncini's assertion, saying the decision to fire the board was linked to the failure to apply an ethical clause relating to the CEO position.
The sources stressed, however, that this did not imply any illegal or illegitimate conduct.
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