ROME, May 4 (Reuters) - Industry Minister Claudio Scajola, one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's closest allies, was under increasing pressure to resign on Tuesday over reports that have implicated him in a shady real estate deal.
Scajol, who denies any wrongdoing, was due to hold a news conference later on Tuesday morning after consulting Berlusconi.
A possible resignation would be a major blow to Berlusconi but commentators said it would not lead to a government crisis but only a cabinet reshuffle.
While a number of mainstream commentators and opposition leaders have been calling on Scajola to step down, his position worsened on Tuesday after Il Giornale and Libero, two newspapers close Berlusconi, joined the growing chorus of doubters.
"Scajola must clear up everything or resign," ran the banner headline in Il Giornale, a newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family.
The Italy of Values party, headed by former anti-graft magistrate Antonio di Pietro, is due to present a no-confidence motion in parliament on Tuesday.
If Scajola does resign, it would be the first major change in Berlusconi’s cabinet since the prime minister won national elections in 2008.
Scajola has been a key driver behind Italy’s revival of nuclear energy and in other power schemes, including seeking to make Italy into a natural gas transhipment hub for Europe. He also was instrumental in moving to liberalise the power and gas market.
COLOSSEUM VIEW
The case surrounding Scajola involves a luxury apartment overlooking the colosseum which he purchased in 2004 when he held a different cabinet post.
He says he paid 600,000 euros, well below market value, and denies any wrongdoing. But the two elderly sisters who sold it said they received an additional 1 million euros in 80 cashier’s checks.
Scajola’s name surfaced in an investigation by magistrates in the central city of Perugia into irregularities in public works contracts to build the original site of last year’s G8 summit in Sardinia and other major construction projects.
Magistrates believe the checks came from funds traceable to a constructor who was one of four people arrested in February in a probe of suspected corruption in the awarding of public works contracts.
The probe in which the checks concerning Scajola’s real estate deal surfaced involved contracts to build the original site of last year’s G8 summit on the Sardinian island of La Maddalena.
Hundreds of millions of euros were spent preparing the small island north of Sardinia for the G8 summit.
The meeting was later moved to L’Aquila in a step the government said at the time was a show of solidarity with the quake victims.
Scajola was forced to resign as interior minister over a gaffe during a previous Berlusconi government in 2002.
