Premier Matteo Renzi on
Wednesday addressed the Senate ahead of two no-confidence
motions filed by two opposition parties - Silvio Berlusconi's
centre-right Forza Italia (FI) party and the anti-establishment,
anti-euro 5-Star Movement.
The motions were made over alleged conflicts of interest in
the government's handling of one of four failed 'popolari' or
cooperative banks that were rescued last year.
Renzi began by saying he was "proud" of last year's reform
of the 'popolari' banks, which should have overhauled 25 years
ago.
"If they had been done at the end of the 1990s...we would
have averted the scenes of the last 15 years of connivance
between the credit system and politics," he said in reference to
several consecutive Berlusconi administrations.
He went on to say that FI was "split and ever fewer" in
number, and that the premise of a no-confidence motion over his
government's handling of Banca Etruria is "totally disconnected
from reality".
"The motion says our decree on the popolari banks made
mandatory the transformation and the listing of Banca Etruria,"
he said.
"But of all the banks affected by the January decree, Banca
Etruria was the only one already listed".
Banca Etruria is being used to attack him, he said. "We are
totally used to it, and we are not afraid," he said.
He went on to tell FI Senators that the government's banks
decree saved thousands of jobs.
"It would be too easy for me to say the pot is calling the
kettle black," he said.
"There is no conflict of interest, but an attempt with that
decree to save one million current account holders and 7,000
employees...we would never have destroyed pieces of the economy
in the name of a political battle against government - Italy
comes before political quarrels".
An alleged conflict of interest for Reform Minister Maria
Elena Boschi over the rescue of Banca Etruria, where her father
was vice president, "does not exist", Renzi said.
"This government put Banca Etruria under a commissioner as
it did with other banks without having any concern for names and
surnames," he told the Senate.
"For us there are no friends or friends of friends," Renzi
said.
"In this country, those who err must pay and it is not up
to you to decide who pays, it's up to the judges," he told
lawmakers.
He concluded by saying that "the centre-right left Italy in
a worse state than it found it. We will leave it better than how
we found it".
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