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Ex-PM Renzi’s dad investigated for ‘influence trafficking’

The father of former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi is suspected of influence peddling and has been summoned to appear before prosecutors next week, national media reported on Thursday.

Published: 17 February 2017 08:58 CET
Ex-PM Renzi's dad investigated for 'influence trafficking'
Matteo Renzi speaking after losing last December's referendum. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

Tiziano Renzi has become part of a wider probe into rigged tendering by Consip, the Italian administration's central purchasing office.

“This morning I received a notice to appear at the Rome prosecutors' office in regard to 'influence trafficking',” Renzi senior was quoted as saying by the Sole-24 Ore newspaper's website.

“Until this morning I was unaware even of the existence of this offence, and I certainly haven't committed it. My actions have been entirely transparent,” he added.

His lawyer Federico Bagattini described the suspicions about his client as “totally incomprehensible”, as the judicial document only mentioned the number of the law allegedly violated, according to the same media source.

“We will be getting in touch with the prosecutor to find out what the allegations are,” Bagattini added.

Tiziano Renzi had already been the subject of a fraud inquiry, but last July a judge ordered the case to be dropped.

His son Matteo Renzi on Monday launched a comeback bid with a move to reassert his authority over his fractious Democratic Party before an election due in the next year.

Renzi, who quit as premier after losing a December referendum on constitutional reforms but who still leads the PD, secured the backing of the party's executive for an assembly that will set a date for the leadership vote.

READ MORE: Start spreading the news, we haven't seen the last of Matteo Renzi

Italy's Renzi to resign on Wednesday evening

Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

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POLITICS

Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The Italian parliament has passed a measure by Giorgia Meloni's hard-right government allowing anti-abortion activists to enter consultation clinics, sparking outrage from opposition parties.

Published: 24 April 2024 13:05 CEST
Anger as Italy allows pro-life activists into abortion clinics

The measure adopted by the Senate late on Tuesday evening allows regional authorities to permit groups deemed to have “a qualified experience supporting motherhood” to have access to women considering abortions at clinics run by the state-funded healthcare system.

The government says the amendment merely fulfils the original aim of the country’s 1978 law legalising abortion, which says clinics can collaborate with such groups in efforts to support motherhood.

Pressure groups in several regions led by the right are already allowed access to consultation clinics, and the measure may see more join them.

Some regions, such as Marche, which is led by Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, have also restricted access to the abortion pill.

Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), slammed the new law as “a heavy attack on women’s freedom”, while Five Star Movement MPs said Italy had “chosen to take a further step backwards”.

READ ALSO: What will Italy’s right-wing election victory mean for abortion rights?

Meloni has repeatedly said she has no intention of changing the abortion law, known as Law 194, but critics say she is attempting to make it more difficult to terminate pregnancies.

There have long been concerns that the election of Meloni’s hard-right coalition would further threaten womens’ reproductive rights in Italy.

Accessing safe abortions in Italy was already challenging as a majority of gynaecologists – about 63 percent according to official 2021 figures – refuse to perform them on moral or religious grounds.

In several parts of the country, including the regions of Sicily, Basilicata, Abruzzo, Molise and the province of Bolzano, the percentage of gynaecologists refusing to perform abortions is over 80 percent.

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