Premier Giuseppe Conte's government
faces a big test on Wednesday when Justice Minister Alfonso
Bonafede is put to two motions of no-confidence in parliament.
Bonafede's 5-Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left
Democratic Party (PD) have warned another government partner,
ex-premier Matteo Renzi's centrist Italia VIva (IV) party, that
the government will be plunged into crisis if the minister is
ousted,
Bonafede has come under fire over the COVID-related release
of hundreds of mafiosi from prison and over the alleged failure
to appoint anti-mafia prosecutor Nino Di Matteo head of the
prison service in 2018.
Bonafede stressed there had been "no government
interference" in the courts' decisions to release to house
arrest the mafia bosses and mafiosi, most of them seriously ill.
He said that government decrees that have since been approved
would clamp down on such releases, and would bring many of he
mafiosi back to jail after reassessing their health issues.
On Di Matteo, Bonafede said he had decided in 2018 not to
name him head of the prison service so he could take on a role
once held by late anti-mafia crusading magistrate Giovanni
Falcone.
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