Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè on
Tuesday denied press reports claiming she had no intention of
quitting regardless of pressure from her party and said she
would resign if Premier Giorgia Meloni asked her.
"Newspapers can write whatever they want, even those that
weren't there when I was talking, but they shouldn't write what
I didn't say", she said of reports alleging she was disregarding
demands from her party, Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI), to
step down after being indicted for alleged false accounting at
her former publishing company Visibilia.
"I have never said who cares about the party but who cares about
those criticizing me", said the minister.
"I am a woman of the party and it is clear that, if my president
of the council were to directly ask me to resign, I wouldn't
hesitate", said Santanchè.
Santanchè, a 63-year-old lawmaker in 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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