Culture min in flap over Columbus Galileo gaffe

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 24 - Italy's culture minister, Gennaro Sangiuliano, is drawing flak for the latest in a string of alleged gaffes, having claimed that Christopher Columbus "circled the globe on the basis of the theories of Galileo Galilei", the great scientist and astronomer who was born more than 50 years after the Genoese explorer died.
    Columbus discovered the New World in 1492 and died in 1506, while Galileo was born in 1564.
    Opposition parties are calling for Premier Giorgia Meloni to sack the minister, who recently revealed her had voted for Strega Book Prize entries without having read them and also placed TImes Square in London.
    "Doesn't Meloni feel any shame about him?" asked Green leader Angelo Bonelli, adding "I'd gift him a history book but he doesn't read", while the 5-Star Movement said "Sangiuliano is circumnavigating the world with his ignorance", adding "what has Italy, a country known all over the world for its culture, done wrong to have a culture minister like Gennaro Sangiuliano, who is collecting gaffe after gaffe, and whose ineptitude is a constant stain on Italian culture".
    Sangiuliano is a heavyweight in Meloni's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party. (ANSA).