Santanchè says not resigning

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 27 - Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè said on Monday that she would not resign, arriving at the Italy Village in Jeddah.
    "I am not resigning and I am moving forward", said the minister.
    Santanchè was in the Saudi port city for the inauguration of the Italy Village, the travelling exhibition that follows the world tour of the Italian Navy's training vessel Amerigo Vespucci, which docked at a Saudi port for the first time in its 93 years of history.
    Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, who was also in Jeddah to visit the Amerigo Vespucci and to hold bilateral meetings with Saudi officials, said the issue of the minister's potential resignation "needs to be dealt with by the premier and Santanchè, especially by Santanchè".
    Santanchè on Friday denied she had been asked to resign after being indicted for alleged false accounting at her former publishing company Visibilia.
    Santanchè, a 63-year-old lawmaker in Premier Giorgia Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party who resigned from her roles in Visibilia, a publishing and advertising agency that is now in administration, before she became minister in 2022, has denied all wrongdoing.
    She was among 17 people indicted earlier this month over alleged false corporate communications, including her partner Dimitri Kunz and her sister Fiorella Garnero.
    Prosecutors alleged that the balance sheets were manipulated between 2016 and 2022 to hide millions of euros of losses and enable the company to stay in business.
    The trial, which will begin in March, may not be the only one that will stem from alleged wrongdoing related to the minister's business activities.
    Santanche has survived a no confidence motion in the Senate over her former business allegedly failing to pay suppliers and dismissing workers without giving them redundancy payments and allegedly improperly receiving COVID aid. (ANSA).