A delicate situation. Italian Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano, embroiled in revelations about an adulterous relationship, announced on Wednesday, September 4, that he had handed in his resignation to the head of government Giorgia Meloni, who refused it.
“The first thing I told her (Giorgia Meloni, editor’s note) is that I am ready to resign (…) She told me to move forward,” the minister said in a long interview Wednesday evening on the first channel of RAI, public television.
He also made delicate public confessions about Maria Rosaria Boccia, a young woman who floods social networks with testimonies of their relationship.
“It became a romantic relationship” last May, he admitted, saying he ended it “at the end of July, beginning of August.”
“I ask for forgiveness”
Maria Rosaria Boccia sparked a scandal by publishing on social media at the end of August her alleged appointment as advisor to the Minister of Culture for major events, which the latter was quick to deny.
She responded by publishing photos of herself with the minister at numerous public events, emails, boarding passes, etc., which made headlines in the Italian press.
With each of the minister’s statements, a married man who appears in some published photos without his wedding ring, the young woman demolishes his defense.
In his candid interview on Wednesday, he assured, bank statements in hand, that he had personally paid all the expenses related to Maria Rosaria Boccia’s various trips with him, and that not a single public euro had been spent.
“The first person I must apologize to, and who is an exceptional person, is my wife,” he said. “I also apologize to Giorgia Meloni who trusted me for the embarrassment I have caused for her and the government,” he added.
“Therapeutic obstinacy”
The opposition did not fail to seize on the matter, demanding the minister’s resignation.
“Keeping Gennaro Sangiuliano in government is a case of therapeutic obstinacy,” denounces Ivan Scalfarotto, senator of the centrist party Italia Viva, while Alessandro Zan, senior official of the Democratic Party (PD, centre-left), believes that this affair “puts the credibility of the government at stake.”
- BFMTV.com
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