Italy’s Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resigned on Friday, embroiled in an affair involving an influencer who secretly filmed his wanderings in the ministry’s gilded halls using smart glasses.
“After much reflection, during these painful days (…) I have decided to resign irrevocably from my post as Minister of Culture,” Sangiuliano wrote to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in a letter published by his ministry.
Mr Sangiuliano is the first minister in Ms Meloni’s government to resign, and comes less than two weeks before a September 19-21 meeting of culture ministers from the G7 countries, which Italy chairs this year.
He also announced that he would contact the public prosecutor’s office to defend “his honour” and “demonstrate my absolute transparency and that I acted correctly”, without specifying who would be targeted by his complaint.
“I sincerely thank Gennaro Sangiuliano (…) for the extraordinary work accomplished so far which has allowed the Italian government to obtain important results in the revival and enhancement of the great Italian cultural heritage,” reacted Ms. Meloni in a press release.
On Wednesday, in an attempt to save his job, Mr. Sangiuliano, 62, sobbed and engaged in a contrition exercise that was widely mocked in the press, explaining the circumstances of his meeting with Maria Rosaria Boccia, 41, who flooded social media with accounts of their relationship.
“It became a romantic relationship” last May, he admitted, saying he ended it “at the end of July, beginning of August.”
Maria Rosaria Boccia sparked off a scandal by posting on Instagram at the end of August her alleged appointment as advisor to the Minister of Culture for major events, something that Mr Sangiuliano was quick to deny.
Ms Boccia responded by publishing photos of herself with the minister at numerous public events, emails, boarding passes, etc.
To each of the minister’s statements, a married man who appears in some photos published by Mrs. Boccia without his wedding ring, the young woman responded, weakening her defense a little more each day.
In his candid interview on Wednesday, he assured, bank statements in hand, that he had personally paid all the expenses related to Mrs Boccia’s various trips with him, and that not a single public euro had been spent.
“The first person I have to apologize to, and she is an exceptional person, is my wife,” he said.
“I also ask forgiveness from Giorgia Meloni who trusted me for the embarrassment I caused for her and the government,” he added, still having the support of his peers at that time.
His successor is Alessandro Giuli, president of the MAXXI Foundation, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts.
“He deserved this position, he is a very competent person. I am really sorry,” Ms Boccia said in an interview with the La7 television channel on Friday evening after learning of Mr Sangiuliano’s resignation.
“I am not afraid of an investigation because I told the truth,” she added in reference to the complaint announced by Mr. Sangiuliano, affirming that she had “not spied on the minister because I worked with the minister.”
ljm/fjb
Related News :