Parents of former Italian premier Renzi under house arrest

The parents of Italy's former prime minister Matteo Renzi were placed under house arrest on Monday amid an investigation into suspected fraudulent bankruptcy.

Published: 19 February 2019 09:40 CET

Parents of former Italian premier Renzi under house arrest

Italy's former prime minister Matteo Renzi. Photo: Andreas Solaro/AFP

Tiziano Renzi and Laura Bovoli, suspected of issuing false invoices, were put under house arrest to avoid the destruction or manipulation of evidence, press reports said, quoting judicial sources.

Renzi, who headed the Italian government from February 2014 to December 2016, said his family was being “smeared” because of his political activities.

Renzi described the arrest as “abnormal” and said that, while he wouldn't say his family was the victim of a plot, the news was a “media masterpiece” as it had overshadowed the vote by Five-Star Movement members against Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini's parliamentary immunity being lifted in a potential migrant kidnapping case.

“Those who have a minimum of legal knowledge know that depriving someone of their personal liberty for something like this is abnormal,” Renzi, a PD Senator, reportedly said.

“What's more, those who know how things really are know that the documents do not say the truth. But that will be for the trial.”

“I have a lot of faith in the Italian justice system,” Renzi, 44, wrote in a post on Facebook. “And so I am anxious to attend the trial.”

Tiziano Renzi (R) and his wife Laura Bovoli, parents of former Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, received the house arrest notice on Monday. Photo: Carlo Bressan/AFP

“People who have read the (investigative) papers assure me they have never seen such an absurd or disproportionate measure,” Renzi wrote, referring to the house arrest.

Tiziano Renzi is a businessman and was previously a local politician in the town of Rignano sull’Arno, near Florence.

He has faced a string of legal problems since his son became prime minister in 2014, causing embarrassment to the center-left leader and handing ammunition to his political opponents.

Renzi left office in December 2016. Last week he published a book about his time as prime minister, and was in Turin on Monday for a launch event when news of his parents' house arrest broke.

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The strike comes after Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama — who is close to Meloni — called a top RAI editor to complain about a television report into Italy’s controversial migration deal with his country.

The Usigrai trade union called the strike from May 6 to May 7 saying talks with management had failed to address their concerns.

It cited numerous issues, including staff shortages and contract issues, but in first place was “the suffocating control over journalistic work, with the attempt to reduce RAI to a megaphone for the government”.

It had already used that phrase to object to what critics say is the increasing influence over RAI by figures close to Prime Minister Meloni, who leads Italy’s most right-wing government since World War II.

However, another union of RAI journalists, Unirai, said they would not join what they called a “political” strike, defending the return to “pluralism” at the broadcaster.

Funded in part by a licence fee and with top managers long chosen by politicians, RAI’s independence has always been an issue of debate.

But the arrival in power of Meloni — leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, who formed a coalition with Matteo Salvini’s far-right League party and the late Silvio Berlusconi’s right-wing Forza Italia — redoubled concerns.

Tensions erupted at the weekend amid accusations RAI censored a speech by a leading writer criticising Meloni ahead of Liberation Day on April 25, when Italians mark the defeat of Fascism and the Nazis at the end of World War II.

Both RAI’s management and Meloni have denied censorship, and the premier posted the text of the monologue on her social media.

In another twist, Albania’s premier confirmed Thursday he called senior RAI editor Paolo Corsini about an TV report on Sunday into Italy’s plans to build two migration processing centres on Albanian territory.

Rama told La Stampa newspaper the report was “biased” and contained “lies” – adding that he had not raised the issue with Meloni.

The Report programme claimed the costs of migrant centres, which are under construction, were already “out of control” and raised questions about criminals benefiting from the project.