The soap opera that amused and disgusted, in equal parts, Italians at the end of the summer holidays, written through Instagram posts and cross-interviews, ended this afternoon with the expected ending. Its main protagonist, the Minister of Culture, Gennaro Sangiuliano, 62, resigned this Friday, under increasing pressure after the controversy over the revelations of his former lover about his access to the events and information of the ministry.
An affair that has generated much more than discomfort within the government of Giorgia Meloni, firstly because Sangiuliano had been a bet of the prime minister, the man who – as he himself said – would be responsible for ending the “cultural hegemony of the left”. . And, secondly, because she herself, a few days ago, in her first television interview after returning from vacation, defended the minister, assuring that she had received the guarantee that not a single euro of public money had been wasted, after the photos of Sangiuliano. with the one who was about to be appointed “advisor for major events”.
Precisely the blocking of this nomination triggered the revelations that led the minister to resign a few days before the celebration in Pompeii of the G7 of Culture, in the organization of which Maria Teresa Boccia would have participated, influencer and a 41-year-old businesswoman from the same city. It was she who, when the first news began to break, took it upon herself to respond on her Instagram profile to all of Sangiuliano’s denials about their relationship, his access to organized events and even to internal ministry documents.
The climax was reached on Wednesday evening when, at the end of the second edition of the news program Rai1, the Italian public television, a 15-minute interview with the minister was broadcast in which, amid sobs, Sangiuliano apologized to his wife and the prime minister. minister admitting his infidelity but repeating over and over again that she could not be blackmailed. The broadcast of the interview itself was a source of controversy because it was something difficult to imagine even in the era of control of the media panorama under the governments of Silvio Berlusconi. After the interview, the opposition parties requested Meloni’s appearance in Parliament because of the “personal soap opera” of his Minister of Culture, who “on the eve of the G7 Cultural Summit” has “questioned” the country’s international credibility. according to the Democratic Party.
On that occasion, Sangiuliano had already declared that he had offered his head to Meloni but that she had rejected his resignation. Today he accepted them. But in the middle there was an interview with the newspaper The Stamp de Boccia in which she once again denies the minister by saying that, for the trips they made together, not only official ones, she sent with the office of the former Minister of Culture.
More than a headache for Meloni
Meloni wanted to avoid the resignation of Sangiuliano – who will be replaced by Alessandro Giuli – at a time when, with the election of Minister Raffaele Fitto as European Commissioner, and the probable departure of another minister in the coming months due to legal proceedings, questions, he will have to redistribute the portfolios, opening new negotiations with his allies. But Sangiuliano’s position has become impossible to defend and the Prime Minister ended up accepting his resignation this Wednesday.
In the resignation letter, Sangiuliano thanks Meloni for defending him and reiterates that no public money has been used in “inappropriate activities.” “I need peace of mind, to be close to my wife whom I love, but above all to have my hands free to act in all legal avenues against the one who did this harm to me,” Sangiuliano writes in the letter. The feeling is that the case is not closed.
