{"id":152860,"date":"2012-01-11T15:06:21","date_gmt":"2012-01-11T11:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.epress.am\/?p=152860"},"modified":"2012-01-11T15:06:21","modified_gmt":"2012-01-11T11:06:21","slug":"italy-monti-government-faces-first-ethics-scandal-junior-minister-quits-over-free-hotel-stays","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/2012\/01\/11\/italy-monti-government-faces-first-ethics-scandal-junior-minister-quits-over-free-hotel-stays.html","title":{"rendered":"Italy: Monti Government Faces First Ethics Scandal, Junior Minister Quits over Free Hotel Stays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Italian Premier Mario Monti\u2019s (pictured) new government suffered its first ethics casualty Tuesday with the resignation of a top official who allegedly received complimentary vacations at an exclusive Tuscan resort, <span style=\"color: #000080;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/business\/markets\/monti-government-in-italy-faces-first-ethics-scandal-minister-quits-over-fancy-hotel-visits\/2012\/01\/10\/gIQAOvUrnP_story.html\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>The Washington Post<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span> reports, citing AP.<\/p>\n<p>Carlo Malinconico, Monti\u2019s undersecretary, quit Tuesday although he insisted he did nothing wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Italian media have reported that a businessman under investigation for alleged corruption in a public contracts case paid at least part of the \u20ac19,876 (over $25,000) bill for Malinconico\u2019s summer weekend getaways in 2007 and 2008 at the five-star Il Pellicano resort on the Tuscan coast.<\/p>\n<p>Monti\u2019s government came into office in November pledging transparency and rigor to help rescue Italy from financial disaster, imposing tough austerity measures that include higher taxes and pension cuts.<\/p>\n<p>Monti, a well-respected economist and former European commissioner, insisted that his government of technocrats be free of any conflicts of interest or other impediments as they demand financial sacrifices from ordinary Italians.<\/p>\n<p>The Malinconico case represented this government\u2019s first hint of scandal, and Monti dispatched with it quickly, accepting Malinconico\u2019s resignation after meeting with him Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Monti thanked Malinconico for his \u201csense of responsibility in putting the public interest before any other consideration.\u201d The statement noted that Malinconico says he had acted properly.<\/p>\n<p>At the time of the resort stays, Malinconico was the secretary general in Romano Prodi\u2019s center-left government.<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Italian media have reported that a businessman under investigation for alleged corruption in a public contracts case paid at least part of the&#8230;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":152817,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tstyn_error":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[36584,10991,36585],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152860"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/152817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/epress.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}