Today in Italy: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
Police seize 600m in Covid fund fraud swoop, Puglia councillor resigns amid vote-buying scandal, Sicily calls for state of emergency over drought, and more news from Italy on Friday.
Italy's top story on Friday:
Police arrested 22 people and seized villas and luxury cars on Thursday as part of a major international investigation into suspected fraud of EU Covid recovery funds in Italy as well as Austria and Slovakia, AFP reported.
The Venice office of Italy's financial police unit, the Guardia di Finanza, said it had seized assets worth over 600 million euros including "apartments and villas, significant sums in cryptocurrencies, high-end watches (Rolex), jewellery (Cartier), gold, and luxury cars (including Lamborghini Urus, Porsche Panamera and Audi Q8).”
The European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.
Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans - but there have long been warnings that the funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.
Tourism minister defeats no-confidence vote
Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè defeated a no-confidence vote in Italy's lower house of parliament on Thursday, Sky TG24 reported, one day after her colleague, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, survived a similar vote.
Santanchè, who is under investigation by the Milan Prosecutor's Office for false accounting and national insurance fraud following an investigation aired by the TV show Report last June, survived the motion by 213 votes to 121, with three abstentions.
The motion was backed by all of Italy's major opposition groups bar the centrist Italia Viva party. The minister, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party, has said she will resign if prosecuted.
Santanchè's tourism ministry was placed under investigation by a regional audit court last August for wasting government funds following a widely derided €9 million advertising campaign that seemingly vanished within a few weeks of being launched.
Puglia transport councillor resigns amid vote-buying scandal
The transport councillor for Italy's southern Puglia region, Anita Maurodinoia, resigned following revelations that she was under investigation for electoral fraud, regional authorities said on Thursday.
Maurodinoia's husband Alessandro Cataldo, of the 'Sud al centro' political movement, has reportedly been placed under house arrest along with Triggiano mayor Antonio Donatelli on suspicion of vote-buying.
The charges relate to local elections in the towns of Triggiano in 2021 and Grumo Appula in 2020, in which the suspects are alleged to have paid 50 euros to each person who voted for their candidate.
The investigation was reportedly triggered after fragments of the photocopied ID documents of voters who had participated in the fraudulent scheme were discovered in a rubbish bin in 2021.
Sicily calls for state of emergency over drought
Sicilian authorities on Wednesday called for the government to bring in state of emergency measures over the region's water crisis, according to local media reports.
Sicily President Renato Schifani told media the island's drought situation was becoming "dramatic", and that "urgent state interventions" were required to support its agricultural and livestock companies, which he said are in "very serious difficulty".
The measure would guarantee drinking water to residents and a steady water supply to farms and construction sites. To come into effect, it would need to be approved by the Italian cabinet.
Sicily declared a regional state of emergency over its drought situation back in February, following eight months of what the ANBI Observatory on Water Resources described as "almost total aridity".
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Italy's top story on Friday:
Police arrested 22 people and seized villas and luxury cars on Thursday as part of a major international investigation into suspected fraud of EU Covid recovery funds in Italy as well as Austria and Slovakia, AFP reported.
The Venice office of Italy's financial police unit, the Guardia di Finanza, said it had seized assets worth over 600 million euros including "apartments and villas, significant sums in cryptocurrencies, high-end watches (Rolex), jewellery (Cartier), gold, and luxury cars (including Lamborghini Urus, Porsche Panamera and Audi Q8).”
The European Union's Recovery and Resilience Facility, established to help countries bounce back from the economic blow dealt by the Covid pandemic, is worth more than 800 billion euros, financed in large part through common EU borrowing.
Italy has been the largest beneficiary, awarded 194.4 billion euros through a combination of grants and loans - but there have long been warnings that the funding would be targeted by organised crime groups.
Tourism minister defeats no-confidence vote
Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè defeated a no-confidence vote in Italy's lower house of parliament on Thursday, Sky TG24 reported, one day after her colleague, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, survived a similar vote.
Santanchè, who is under investigation by the Milan Prosecutor's Office for false accounting and national insurance fraud following an investigation aired by the TV show Report last June, survived the motion by 213 votes to 121, with three abstentions.
The motion was backed by all of Italy's major opposition groups bar the centrist Italia Viva party. The minister, a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's far-right Brothers of Italy party, has said she will resign if prosecuted.
Santanchè's tourism ministry was placed under investigation by a regional audit court last August for wasting government funds following a widely derided €9 million advertising campaign that seemingly vanished within a few weeks of being launched.
Puglia transport councillor resigns amid vote-buying scandal
The transport councillor for Italy's southern Puglia region, Anita Maurodinoia, resigned following revelations that she was under investigation for electoral fraud, regional authorities said on Thursday.
Maurodinoia's husband Alessandro Cataldo, of the 'Sud al centro' political movement, has reportedly been placed under house arrest along with Triggiano mayor Antonio Donatelli on suspicion of vote-buying.
The charges relate to local elections in the towns of Triggiano in 2021 and Grumo Appula in 2020, in which the suspects are alleged to have paid 50 euros to each person who voted for their candidate.
The investigation was reportedly triggered after fragments of the photocopied ID documents of voters who had participated in the fraudulent scheme were discovered in a rubbish bin in 2021.
Sicily calls for state of emergency over drought
Sicilian authorities on Wednesday called for the government to bring in state of emergency measures over the region's water crisis, according to local media reports.
Sicily President Renato Schifani told media the island's drought situation was becoming "dramatic", and that "urgent state interventions" were required to support its agricultural and livestock companies, which he said are in "very serious difficulty".
The measure would guarantee drinking water to residents and a steady water supply to farms and construction sites. To come into effect, it would need to be approved by the Italian cabinet.
Sicily declared a regional state of emergency over its drought situation back in February, following eight months of what the ANBI Observatory on Water Resources described as "almost total aridity".
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