Anti-establishment 5-Star
Movement (M5S) leader Luigi Di Maio said Tuesday it was a
"scandal" that then premier and centre-left Democratic Party
(PD) leader Matteo Renzi phoned businessman Carlo De Benedetti
in 2015 to let him know the government was set to pass a reform
of 'popolari' cooperative banks so he could allegedly buy shares
in them.
"If that is the PD's model then I'll fight it with all my
strength, " said Di Maio.
He said the PD should not be voted in the March 4 general
election and vowed to "send them packing".
De Benedetti, a centre left sympathiser who owns the
left-leaning daily la Repubblica, said there had been "no abuse
of information".
He said that the UBS bank held a press conference two weeks
previously urging investors to buy stock in the cooperatives.
Di Maio also said that the parliamentary commission of
inquiry into Italy's banking crisis, which recently wound up its
work, "should be permanent".
He said that "no bank should no longer feel it can do what
the others have done".
He also said that another watchdog over banks was needed,
alongside the Bank of Italy which he said had failed to do its
job.
Renzi has come under fire from all opponents including the
centre right over the reports that he spoke to De Benedetti
about plans to reform the popolari when he was premier before
the legislation was passed by his government.
The reports referred to a telephone conversation in January
2015 in which De Benedetti told his broker that he had spoken to
Renzi about the reform decree and the then-premier had said that
it would be passed.
Prosecutors have requested that an insider trading probe be
shelved after Renzi and De Benedetti both said that they had not
gone into the details of the reform.
Renzi said Wednesday that the fact the reform was in the
pipeline was no secret.
"There was a news agency report that said we would undertake
that reform," Renzi told Radio Capital.
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