Center-right junior partner in Italy's cabinet involved in alleged cronyism scandal

Italian Interior Minister Angelino Alfano, whose center-right party is a junior partner in the national cabinet, faced allegations of cronyism and calls to quit from the opposition, local media has reported.

The scandal involving Alfano, who is leader of the New Center Right (NCD), focused on alleged influence peddling by some of his family members.

It resulted from a wide probe launched by prosecutors in Rome, who put several entrepreneurs, public officials, and politicians under scrutiny over suspected corruption, embezzlement, and cronyism in hiring for public and private firms, according to Ansa news agency.

Some 24 people were arrested across the country on charges of tax fraud conspiracy, corruption, money laundering, fraud against the state, and embezzlement on June 4.

A deputy from the NCD party was also involved in the investigation, but was not arrested, and assets worth about 1.2 million euros (1.33 million U.S. dollars) were seized.

Among the arrested were a former under-secretary in 2008-2011 Silvio Berlusconi's government and his brother, Raffaele Pizza, who was reportedly believed to play a crucial intermediary role in the organization.

The latter specifically claimed he made minister Alfano's brother hire in a subsidiary firm of Italy's postal agency in a phone conversation wiretapped by investigators in January, and published by media in recent days.

Alfano's father was also suspected of seeking favouritism for up to 80 people in hiring for the Poste Italiane agency, Ansa reported.

The Interior Minister said he was not involved in any wrongdoing, nor were his relatives, and stated his name was publicly brought up for political reasons only.

He called the wiretappings as "scraps of a judicial probe, which does not concern myself", and claimed he had not been in touch with the people under investigation for a long time.

Yet, opposition forces in parliament called for him to resign.

Alfano's NCD is a minor, yet crucial, ally of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in the coalition government. Should he resign, the cabinet might fall, local media noted.

Furthermore, the scandal might further tarnish the image of Italy's cabinet overall.

Matteo Renzi's ruling, center-left Democratic Party (PD) has indeed suffered a setback in the local ballots in June already, and recent opinion polls showed anti-establishment, opposition Five Star Movement (M5S) would currently be the most popular party among Italians.

If national elections were called now, the M5S would reach 30.6 percent of the vote, and the PD would have 29.8 percent, an opinion poll by Ipsos Agency published by Il Corriere della Sera daily showed earlier this week.

In April, before the M5S succeeded in several cities in June's mayoral ballots, the IPSOS survey had showed an opposite situation: the ruling PD at 31.1 percent of the vote, and the opposition movement 28.9 percent. Endit