Santanché issue 'extrapolitical' says Meloni

(ANSA) - ROME, JUL 12 - Premier Giorgia Meloni on Wednesday described the issue involving Tourism Minister Daniela Santanché as "extrapolitical" and said it is for the courts, not TV broadcasts, to work out.
    "The Santanchè issue is extrapolitical, it does not concern her activity as minister, which she is doing very well," Meloni told reporters after the NATO summit in Vilnius.
    "It is a very complex issue, it has to be seen on the merits when the merits are fully known, but I think that is up to the courtrooms and not the TV broadcasts," said the premier on a probe against the minister in relation to allegations of fraudulent bankruptcy and false accounting regarding the Visibilia publishing group that she founded.
    Last Wednesday Santanché briefed parliament in relation to claims made by Rai investigative journalism show Report that businesses linked to her allegedly failed to pay suppliers and allegedly dismissed workers without giving them redundancy payments that were due to them, as well as allegedly improperly receiving COVID aid.
    The claims sparked calls for her to quit.
    She told lawmakers she was not under criminal investigation and had been the victim of "dirty, disgusting practices" by the media.
    She specified that she had not received notification of a probe, adding that she had also had her lawyers check with prosecutors to make sure that she was not under investigation.
    Meadia subsequently reported that she has been under investigation since October along with five other people who had roles in the company, including her sister Fiorella Garnero and her partner Dimitri Kuntz D'Asburgo, the former president of Visibilia Editore.
    "The anomaly is that the minister is not notified of the investigation, but the investigation is notified to a newspaper on the same day she goes to parliament for a briefing. I pointed out a procedural problem," said Meloni.
    She was referring to a statement issued last Thursday and attributed to "Palazzo Chigi sources" in which it was suggested that part of the judiciary had joined the opposition. (ANSA).