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.
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