ROME — Despite calling for sacrifices in public spending, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is leasing a new private jet for 1 million euros a month, il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper has disclosed. In addition, Palazzo Chigi, the prime minister's office, has entered into a new contract for the renting of more than 5,000 official cars, another bugbear of public outrage over bureaucratic waste, the newspaper said Wednesday.

  The prime minister's new Airbus A-330 aircraft is twice as large as its predecessor, and five times as spacious as his current airplane that he uses for travel. 

  Renzi is not buying the aircraft, rather leasing it at the estimated sum of 1 million euros a month, and his previous jet will be sold, in order to cover the expenses of the new one.

  Il Fatto Quotidiano decried Renzi’s purchase as “a waste of public funds. It is about time that someone from the Democratic Party builds up the courage to say this loud and clearly to Matteo Renzi himself.”

  The A330 is capable of flying much longer distances, and only needs refuelling every 15 hours. In addition, his new jet will be equipped with a double en-suite bedroom, a meeting room and work tables for himself and his staff. 

  It is expected that Renzi’s first journey in the new jet will be when he visits Latin America next month.

  Renzi raised some eyebrows by flying to watch the Italian women’s doubles final in the US Open tennis competition. To go there, he cancelled all of his prior commitments, including the “Fiera del Levante” (“Fair of the South”), an annual event held to discuss the economy of southern Italy. 

  His justification for his presence in the United States was that having two Italian tennis players in the final was a momentous occasion for the country, and he had to show his support. He also said that “Fiera del Levante will be there next year”. 

  According to Il Fatto Quotidiano, the cost of that flight to New York alone would have been between 150,000 and 200,000 euros. 

  Furthermore, despite agreeing to cut down their numbers, according to Il Fatto Quotidiano, Renzi has recently entered into a new "mega-contract for the hiring of 6,000 service cars". At the start of his term in government, within the space of a few months, he had disposed of three thousand of the signature blue cars, but it seems like he has found a way around being parted with car-transport for good.