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Vladimir Putin, his League party said that the agreement it had with the Russian president’s United Russia party is no longer valid following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.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 on 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“As previously reiterated, the 2017 proposed collaboration between the League and United Russia is no longer valid after the invasion of Ukraine.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.
Despite the League’s statement, centrist opposition Azione (Action) party House Whip Matteo Richetti said it was “lying” and that the no-confidence motion would go ahead.
“The League’s statement contains a new lie. Now they explain to us that after Putin’s invasion of Ukraine that text is no longer valid, but actually, that accord contains an automatic renewal clause.
“The truth is that Salvini’s ambiguities on Russia are all but clarified and it is for that reason that we are going ahead with our no confidence motion, convinced (of its validity).”
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.
This comes 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 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.
The opposition castigated the ruling coalition because neither Salvini nor Santanchè were present for the votes.
Green-Left Alliance (AVS) leader Angello Bonelli said “it’s very serious that Salvini is not here, and I recall that a few years ago he said, ‘I’d give two and a half Mattarellas for one Putin’,” referring to President Sergio Mattarella.
AVS MP Elisabetta Piccolotti said Santanchè would inevitably have to resign when prosecutors press charges against her and said “she should have resigned a year ago” when the cases first came to light.
Farm Minister Francesco Lollobrigida, an FdI bigwig and Meloni’s brother-in-law, said “there is no doubt that the majority is solidly against the motions” and said that innocence until guilt was proven was a part of the Italian Constitution.
The motions are expected to be voted on Wednesday evening or Thursday morning.
ANSA
