Deputy Premier and Transport Minister
Matteo Salvini and Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè faced
separate no-confidence motions that were expected to be defeated
on Wednesday.
Ahead of the vote on Salvini, where he is accused of links with
and sympathies for Russian President Vladimir Putin, his League
party said that the agreement it had with the Russian
president's United Russia party is no longer valid following
Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
The Lower House is voting on an opposition no-confidence motion
in Salvini over the League's links with the ruling party in
Russia.
"The war totally changed opinions and political relations with
Russia, which, before the invasion, was an important
interlocutor for all Italian governments," the League said.
"As previously reiterated, the 2017 proposed collaboration
between the League and United Russia is no longer valid after
the invasion of Ukraine.
"Even before that, there were no joint initiatives.
"The League's position is confirmed by votes in Parliament.
"It is regrettable that the House has to waste time on pointless
polemics triggered by the opposition".
Salvini has been under fire for saying that "a people is always
right when it votes" following Putin's recent landslide
re-election and for failing to blame Putin for the death in a
Siberian prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Salvini has expressed admiration for Putin several times in the
past, but he has also condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
Tourism Minister Santanchè also faces a no-confidence motion on
Wednesday amid several criminal probes over her business
activities.
Santanchè has said she would quit if she were prosecuted.
In the most serious case, she could face charges of aggravated
fraud against the Italian national pensions and social security
institute INPS over alleged irregular management of funds made
available for redundancy payments during the Covid-19 pandemic,
following a probe into allegedly improper business practices
related to her former Visibilia publishing empire.
News of the investigation emerged last summer after
investigative journalism programme Report on Rai 3 reported that
businesses linked to Santanche' , a leading member of Premier
Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party,
allegedly failed to pay suppliers and dismissed workers without
giving them redundancy payments, as well as allegedly improperly
receiving COVID aid, prompting calls for her to quit.
The 62-year-old minister, who sold her stake in Visibilia when
she became minister, has denied all wrongdoing.
She has said she is innocent and has vowed to clear her name if
the cases come to court.
The other cases involve alleged false accounting, alleged
fraudulent bankruptcy, and alleged money laundering.
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