Deputy Minister in Salvini's League Quits After Court Verdict
Italy Set to Warn Against Budget Tightening in Reply to EU
(Bloomberg) --
A deputy minister from Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini’s League party resigned shortly after being found guilty in an embezzlement case, defusing the most recent fight between Italy’s fractious coalition allies.
A court in Genoa sentenced the official, Edoardo Rixi, to three years and five months in jail and banned him from holding public office in the so-called “Crazy Expenses” probe on misuse of regional funds before he took the government position, news agency Ansa reported. Rixi, who's denied any wrongdoing, can appeal the decision.
Rixi said shortly after the ruling that he’d offered Salvini his resignation “out of love for Italy and not to create problems for the government,” according to a statement from Salvini’s spokeswoman. Rixi said he was confident he’d be acquitted on appeal.
Salvini and fellow Deputy Premier Luigi Di Maio of the Five Star Movement had been at loggerheads over Rixi, with the League defending him and Five Star wanting him out of the government.
The League, newly empowered after Sunday’s election win, had pledged that Rixi, a deputy infrastructure minister who has denied wrongdoing, would keep his job whatever the verdict. Five Star, which has long campaigned to clean up politics, had called for his dismissal if convicted.
To contact the reporters on this story: John Follain in Rome at jfollain2@bloomberg.net;Lorenzo Totaro in Rome at ltotaro@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ben Sills at bsills@bloomberg.net, Jerrold Colten, Dan Liefgreen
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