Monti Supports Italian President Napolitano Amid Wiretap Reports

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti said President Giorgio Napolitano is the victim of “unacceptable insinuations in the press” regarding recordings made by prosecutors of phone calls with the head of state’s office.

“We must oppose every attempt to destabilize the country,” Monti’s office said today in an e-mailed statement. “The country will know how to react to defend the exemplary constitutional values present in President Napolitano and his unflagging effort at the exclusive service of the nation.”

Napolitano is challenging the constitutionality of the recordings by the prosecutors in Palermo who are investigating allegations of relations between the Sicilian mafia and state officials in the early 1990s.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Frye in Rome at afrye@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net.