Italian Culture Minister Resigns Amid Media Storm Over Move To Hire Lover As A Ministry Advisor
Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resigned on Friday as a media storm over his move to a hire influencer and love interest as a ministry consultant showed no sign of abating some two weeks after it first broke.
Sangiuliano’s departure marks a blow for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who appointed him to the role as one of 24 ministers in the government she formed after her far-right Brothers of Italy party swept to victory in general elections in October 2022.
With his penchant for 19th Century patriotic poetry and Mussolini-era writers and philosophers, Sangiuliano’s appointment sparked unease among the country’s mainly centre-left to leftist leaning film and TV professionals.
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His time in the role has seen discontent at state broadcaster Rai, with journalists going on strike earlier in this May in protest at the government taking “suffocating control” and turning the network into a “megaphone” for its politics, while the minister also set in motion a drive to appoint right-leaning allies to key posts like president of the Venice Biennale, the San Carlo Theatre in Naples and the Teatro di Roma.
He cited his achievements in his resignation letter as getting museums and cultural sites to open in holiday periods and the acquisition of the abandoned Palazzo Citterio in Milan.
Sangiuliano has been on shaky ground ever since social media influencer Maria Rosaria Boccia put up a post on her Instagram account on August 26 thanking him for nominating her as an Advisor to the Minister for Major Events.
Contacted by the media for confirmation of the post, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Culture denied the all knowledge of the appointment.
Infuriated by the denial, Boccia responded by posting a series of documents and recordings of phone calls she said proved the nomination and the fact that she had been advising the minister on the upcoming G7 for culture in Pompei later this month.
As it emerged that Sangiuliano had been in a personal relationship with Boccia, the minister attempted to ride the growing media storm, attending the opening of the Venice Film Festival with his wife, Rai journalist Federica Corsini, on August 28.
Footage later emerged of a female bystander calling out to the minister – as he walked from the Excelsior hotel to the Palazzo del Cinema on the Venice Lido for the premiere of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice – to “behave himself”.
In a letter to the Stampa newspaper on September 3, Sangiuliano admitted he had been in a brief “sentimental relationship” with Boccia from May to early August, and had even considered appointing her as an unpaid consultant for the ministry, but changed his mind because of the “conflict of interest.
There has been no particular condemnation in the Italian media of Sangiuliano’s personal affairs. Criticism is levelled rather at his attempt to hire his mistress and then deny the fact. There were also questions around whether Boccia’s trips with him had been paid for with taxpayers’ money.
Sangiuliano gave a tearful interview to the primetime news program of state broadcaster RAI 1 on Wednesday, in which apologized to his wife and was adamant about the fact that not “a euro of Italian state money” had been spent on Boccia.
He even went as far as to hold up papers that he said showed he had paid for her plane tickets with his own credit card, declaring, “I’m not black-mailable”.
In his resignation letter to Meloni, which was posted on the Ministry of Culture site on Friday evening, Sangiuliano wrote it was no longer tenable for him to remain in the role amid the media coverage.
“This work cannot be tainted and above all stopped by gossip issues. Institutions are too high a value and must not submit to the reasons of individuals,” he wrote.
He added that he would be making complaint to the Public Prosecutor’s Office about reports in the media regarding his conduct.
“My honor is at stake here and I believe it is important to be able to act to demonstrate my absolute transparency and correctness, without involving the Government. Never has a single euro from the Ministry been spent on improper activities.”
Meloni acted swiftly in response to Sanguiliano’s resignation announcing the appointment of Alessandro Gulli as his replacement. The former journalist was previously president of the MAXXI Foundation, devoted to contemporary creation, in Rome, a position he was appointed to by Sangiuliano.
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