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League threatening crisis says Di Maio, Salvini denies

League threatening crisis says Di Maio, Salvini denies

Tensions reach new high amid Siri, Raggi quit calls

Rome, 19 April 2019, 11:47

Redazione ANSA

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The League is threatening a government crisis with its 5-Star Movement (M5S) partner after recent tensions came to a head when a League undersecretary was accused of taking a bribe to favour a Sicilian windfarm king linked to Cosa Nostra's No.1 fugitive and the M5S's Rome mayor was accused of leaning on a waste company exec, M5S leader Luigi Di Maio said Friday.
    But League leader Matteo Salvini immediately squashed all talk of crisis, saying such a notion was all "in Di Maio's head". The M5S have called for the resignation of Transport Undersecretary Armando Siri while the League is calling for Mayor Virginia Raggi to go.
    "Again today the League is threatening to bring the government down," said Di Maio.
    "It seems there are even contacts with (centre-right opposition leader and former premier Silvio) Berlusconi to set up another executive. The papers are full of these reconstructions and I find it extremely serious. I'm really dumbfounded.
    "Italy is not a game, we are Italy and millions of households in difficulty that want a signal.
    "Italy is not a trophy and I find it extremely serious that the League, with such superficiality, every time they feel like it threatens to bring the government down".
    The Siri and Raggi spats are just the latest in a long string of tensions between the populist government partners.
    Transport and Infrastructure Undersecretary Siri was placed under investigation in a Rome and Palermo corruption probe Thursday.
    According to prosecutors, Siri allegedly received money to modify a norm to be inserted into the 2018 DEF economic blueprint which would have favoured funding for firms operating in the renewable energy sector.
    The norm was never approved.
    Siri is alleged to have tried to favour a wind farm entrepreneur linked to Cosa Nostra and accused of helping the Sicilian mafia's number one fugitive Matteo Messina Denaro, Vito Nicastri, in exchange for a 30,000 bribe, prosecutors said.
    The bribe was allegedly handed over by university professor Paolo Arata, a businessman and expert on the League's energy policy, and by Nicastri in Rome. Arata was described as a "wheeler-dealer" operating between the League and Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
    Rome prosecutors said in their search warrant that Siri had used his public role for private interests.
    Siri is the leading ideologue behind the League's 'flat tax' proposals and among the protagonists of leader Matteo Salvini's switch to a nationalist rather than regionalist stance.
    For the government, he is following the dossier on the revamp and relaunch of bankrupt former flag carrier Alitalia.
    Siri said "I have no idea, I don't know what it's about. I must first read and understand. I have read names I don't know.
    I certainly am not involved with affairs that can have criminal effects. I have always behaved respecting the laws. I am tranquil".
    Siri said "I deny all the charges, I ask to be questioned by the prosecutors".
    Siri reiterated: "I have done nothing wrong: I have no reason to resign".
    The leader of the League's government partner, 5-Star Movement (M5S) chief Luigi Di Maio, called for Siri to quit "for ethical and political reasons".
    But League leader Salvini said "I have full confidence in Siri.
    "It is absurd. I know him, I esteem him, I have no doubt, and in any case we're speaking of something that didn''t end up in the DEF".
    Salvini added that he had never demanded the resignation of an M5S member when they were placed under investigation.
    But Transport and Infrastructure Minister Danilo Toninelli, a prominent M5S member, said Siri would be stripped of his duties pending clarification in the case.
    He said that the Trapani anti-mafia investigative unit had been working on the case.
    Meanwhile the Raggi case exploded in Rome.
    In wiretaps published by L'Espresso weekly, the Rome mayor is allegedly heard leaning on the former CEO of Rome waste company AMA, Lorenzo Bagnacani, to push the firm's accounts into the red to obtain public money.
    She allegedly wanted the accounts to be tweaked by withholding credits from cemetery services.
    Bagnacani said he was sacked after he refused to do the mayor's bidding after her "undue pressure", the former manager said in a police complaint published by L'Espresso. Raggi should quit if the content of the new published wiretaps turns out to be true, League Minister for Regional Affairs Erika Stefani said Thursday.
    Stefani said that, if true, the wiretaps would amount to "the confession of a serious crime and a clear admission of a flagrant inability to govern".
    "In line with the rules of her 5-Star Movement we expect her immediate resignation".
    In a statement Thursday, Rome city council "there was never any pressure (on Bagnacani) but the simple application of the norms, the balance sheet proposed by Bagnacani broke the norms and would have guaranteed bonuses for the CEO and the managers".
    In a November 26 wiretap, Raggi allegedly said "You have to give me a hand Lorenzo, you're not helping me.
    "I have the city practically out of control, the trade unions are doing whatever the f**k they like".
    Bagnacani allegedly replies: "we must take into account that to give you a hand we can't do what is not possible" to which the mayor allegedly replies "get the auditors to say it. If you try to change your planned budget...try to make a draft to change your plan...you're not giving me any f**king support Lorenzo...what can I do?" She allegedly went on: "if they look out of their windows and see shit in the city, in some areas that's the way it is unfortunately...there's no helping it."

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