Italy's Lower House rejects motion of no-confidence in reform minister

The lower house of the Italian parliament rejected on Friday a motion of no-confidence in Minister for Constitutional Reforms Maria Elena Boschi, a key member of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's centre-left cabinet.

Deputies gave 373 votes against and 129 votes in favour of the request, which had been filed by anti-establishment Five Stars Movement (M5S) with the support of other smaller opposition groups.

Renzi's government has a wide majority in the House of Deputies.

The M5S presented the no-confidence motion in connection with a controversial rescue of four Italian banks from bankrupt by Renzi's cabinet in late November.

The four banks involved were Banca Popolare dell'Etruria, Banca delle Marche, Cassa di Risparmio di Ferrara, and Cassa di Risparmio di Chieti.

The motion was submitted because of an alleged conflict of interest of minister Boschi, since her father Pierluigi has been vice-president of Banca dell'Etruria from May 2014 to February 2015.

Renzi's government staunchly defended the Reform Minister, who denied any wrongdoing during the debate.

"My father lost his position at the bank as a consequence of the government's decision to place the four banks under special administration in February 2015," Boschi said.

"He was also fined by the Bank of Italy, along with other banking executives, and paid some 144,000 euros".

The minister added she was proud of being member of a government that says all those who do wrong must pay.

"There is no exception to this (rule). If my father did something wrong, he must pay," Boschi said.

MP Alessandro Di Battista from M5S expressed harsh criticism to the minister, and accused the government of favouring the interests of the banks to the detriment of citizens.

"The conflict of interest here actually involves the entire cabinet, since today (in Italy) a political party and a bank are the same thing," Di Battista said.

"Both manage the people's money without transparency. Banks allocate toxic bonds, as much as parties like the (PM Renzi's) Democrats approve toxic provisions".

On Nov. 21, a government's decree allowed the rescue of the four banks through a Resolution Fund worth 3.6 billion euros funded by 3 healthy credit institutes.

About 1.7 billion euros of those will serve to absorb the losses of the four collapsed banks, and 1.8 billion euros to recapitalize the new good "bridge-banks", the central Bank of Italy said.

Finally, at least 140 million euros would ensure the necessary capital to the so-called "bad bank", which takes over all four original banks' bad loans.

Some 130,000 small shareholders and 10,000 bondholders took heavy losses in the rescue plan, according to Italy's major business daily Il Sole 24 Ore.

The national anti-corruption authority has been put in charge of carrying out the arbitrations to see whether retail investors of the four banks would qualify for reimbursements.

A no-confidence motion against the whole government will be presented next week over this issue, centre-right opposition forces said. (1 euro = 1.08 U.S. dollars) Endit