Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano
on Wednesday night told State broadcaster RAI's Tg1 that he had
an affair with an alleged advisor who he claims not to have paid
or allowed access to sensitive information after coming under
fresh pressure to resign.
"We had a relationship, for this reason too I revoked her
appointment" as advisor to the culture minister for major
events, he told the news program.
He said he had offered his resignation to Premier Giorgia Meloni
but she had declined.
Influencer Maria Rosaria Boccia, 41, with whom the 62-year-old
Sangiuliano has admitted having a relationship, on Wednesday
published documents on Instagram disputing government claims
that she was never allowed undue access to events and security
information as an alleged advisor to Sangiuliano and that no
public money was spent for expenses connected to her
participation in events.
The minister said Boccia's role as advisor for major events was
never finalized: "We were in a relationship, it was also because
of this that I revoked the appointment".
In the interview to Tg1, Sangiuliano explained that he had
handed in his resignation during a meeting with Meloni on
Wednesday afternoon but the premier had told him to stay on in
his post.
"I am ready to resign immediately after Meloni asks me, but I
have reassured her with documental evidence that this is only
gossip, which I realize is annoying, but never a euro of
Italians was spent" for Boccia and "no reserved documents ever
circulated".
Meloni "told me to go forward and to immediately clarify the
point of truth.
"She told me: always be sincere and always tell the truth",
Sangiuliano said in the interview.
The culture minister denied that reserved documents for the G7
Culture summit scheduled to take place later this month were
ever violated: "Absolutely not! Only marginal aspects of the G7
were released but no classified or reserved document", he told
his interviewer, Tg1 editor in chief Gian Marco Chiocci.
Sangiuliano also apologized to his wife, "an exceptional person"
and to Meloni for the "embarrassment procured to her and her
government" as well as to his staff.
Meanwhile centre-left Democratic Party (PD) lawmakers in the
parliamentary oversight commission on RAI issued a joint
statement blasting the interview, "without the partidipation of
the opposition, with the only voice of the minister".
"Fifteen minutes of interview to a minister regarding facts on
which opposition members have requested to report to Parliament
are nothing other that a private use of public service".
They went on to say that the "embarrassing story that has
involved the minister, institutions and the organization of the
G7 has so far not been clarified" and asked for a meeting with
RAI's top editors in the oversight commission.
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