Italian PM sacks Salvini ally suspected of corruption and mafia ties

Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Wednesday sacked a graft-tainted junior minister close to populist leader Matteo Salvini, averting a government crisis weeks ahead of European elections.

Published: 8 May 2019 15:26 CEST

Italian PM sacks Salvini ally suspected of corruption and mafia ties

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte (L) with his deputy and interior minister, Matteo Salvini. Photo: Vincenzo Pinto/AFP

Infrastructure and transport undersecretary Armando Siri, a member of coalition partner the League, is alleged to have accepted a €30,000 bribe — or the promise of it — from a businessman for promoting the interests of renewable energy companies.

Prosecutors also suspect the businessman of being in league with a Sicilian who has links to a Mafia boss.

Salvini, who is head of the anti-immigrant League party and deputy prime minister, had repeatedly insisted his ally Siri has done nothing wrong and should stay in his job.

Armando Siri. Photo: senato.it – CC BY 3.0

“There was a very frank and inhabitual cabinet discussion… but without citizens' trust, it would be hard to keep being the government of change,” Conte told journalists.

“Today the cabinet decided, as proposed by the prime minister, to start the procedure to revoke secretary of state Armando Siri,” co-deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio said after the cabinet meeting.

“Not because he's guilty but simply because for us, if a corruption and mafia investigation is mentioned, [then] the political world must react before the judges do,” said Di Maio, who heads the Five Star Movement (M5S).

The M5S, which made “honesty” a keyword of its political campaign before being elected last year, had demanded Siri resign. Premier Conte had on Thursday said Siri should resign, but the latter had refused, with Salvini's backing.

The head of the Five Star Movement, Luigi Di Maio. Photo: Alberto Pizzoli/AFP

“Today this is a victory for Italians, the honest Italians who represent the vast majority of the population and who demand firmness in a country where corruption is a national emergency,” said Di Maio.

A visibly disappointed Salvini told journalists after the cabinet meeting that “trials are done by courts.” Italy is home to “60 million people who are innocent until proven guilty”, he said.

Italian politicians including tycoon and former premier Silvio Berlusconi have in the past used drawn-out court cases and the presumption of innocence to shield themselves from allegations of wrongdoing.

Salvini's League is hoping to progress in European parliament elections on May 26th and wants to keep its increasingly fragile ruling coalition intact until then, at least.

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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.