ROME (ITALPRESS) – Daniela Santanchè, minister of Tourism, has been remanded for trial in Milan on charges of conspiracy to commit false accounting on Visibilia’s corporate communications between 2016 and 2022. The trial will begin on March 20. The minister’s 15 other co-defendants have also been remanded for trial.Inevitable political controversy, with the opposition calling for the minister’s resignation and the majority reaffirming instead its confidence in the holder of the Tourism delegation. “Just a week ago Giorgia Meloni said she wanted to wait for the decision of the judiciary: now it has arrived. She can no longer continue to pretend nothing is going on,” says PD secretary Elly Schlein. “She, who when she was in opposition called for her resignation for much less, now what does she do? Does she change her mind on this too? A Prime Minister cannot use double standards, especially toward friends whom she wanted in government and for whom she is now politically responsible. The trial will take its course to ascertain whether she is guilty, but when the allegations are so serious those in the highest institutional offices must step back. Daniela Santanchè must resign. And Giorgia Meloni must demand her resignation.””Those who represent the state cannot stay in such a condition,” explains Nicola Fratoianni of Avs, leader of Sinistra Italiana, while M5S President Giuseppe Conte reiterates his call for “the Minister’s immediate resignation, without wanting to anticipate the outcome of the criminal trials. But a party like Fratelli d’Italia, which every day cries scandal over the Covid period and wages war on people in need by accusing them of being “clever” with state subsidies, then keeps in place a Minister who from the evidence so far has allegedly been “clever” by cheating the state with Covid funds? It is absolutely unseemly for government institutions that the Minister remains there,” he added. For Action leader Carlo Calenda, “Daniela Santanchè should resign not because she has been indicted, because an indictment is not a conviction, but because she has led a company to bankruptcy and because the facts and her behavior are not compatible with an important office such as that of Minister of Tourism. “That on the possible resignation of Minister Santanchè “is an assessment that is totally up to the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, we wait serenely for her to be evaluated on a matter that has profiles that leave us rather perplexed anyway. We respect the pronouncement of the judiciary, assessments of the case will be made within the government,” explains Fratelli d’Italia’s head of delegation to the European Parliament, Carlo Fidanza, on the sidelines of an event in Milan.From government allies support for Santanchè. “One is guilty after three major verdicts, not before: we reiterate our confidence in Minister Santanchè,” reads a note from the League. “We are always guarantors, not from today: one is innocent until a final conviction. It applies to a private citizen as well as to a minister. We reaffirm Forza Italia’s confidence in Daniela Santanchè,” Forza Italia says, while Noi Moderati President Maurizio Lupi stresses, “An indictment is not a sentence of conviction, much less a final sentence. For us, garantismo applies always and for anyone, so until the third degree Minister Santanchè is innocent and there are no legal reasons why she should resign. We are convinced that Daniela Santanchè will be able to prove her innocence.”
– Photo Agency Photogram –
(ITALPRESS).
