The Italian Minister Daniela Santanchè a Normal Criminal? She says: „I'm not Resigning and I'm Moving on.“
But the days of resistance speak another language: The Minister of Tourism on a mission to Saudi Arabia with half the government is waiting for the premier Giorgia Meloni to ask her to step down.
And in a behind-the-scenes report she is reported to have warned: „I am not just any parliamentarian.“ The tug-of-war is likely to get longer ...
The Minister of Tourism Santanchè, after days of silence, is trying to close the matter of her indictment for the “Visibilia” case.
„I am not resigning and I am moving on.“ With 9 words, Daniela Santanchè shoots straight despite the indictment in one of the strands of the investigation on Visibilia. The Tourism Minister bolts to her chair, closing – for the moment – the road to resignation.
She did so from Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, after days of meetings, phone calls and lunches, all attempts, gone in vain, to convince her to let go so as not to turn her judicial troubles into a via crucis for the government. In the days that have passed since the judge's decision, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has not dumped her but neither has she defended her to the hilt, not least because the investigation has other pieces in the pipeline and the situation could precipitate.
And in the meantime Santanchè and Meloni have to deal with the fire of the oppositions that continue to demand that Santanchè steps back or that the premier directly remove her from the government.
„I exclude that Giorgia will ask me to step down. Why should she? In the current conditions I would be surprised. Tajani and Salvini have defended me. I may be disliked, but I am not just any parliamentarian“, the minister confided to her staff, according to a backstage report from the newspaper „Corriere della Sera“.
The two, as Meloni herself explained, will talk about it face to face. That could be a decisive moment, as Defence Minister Guido Crosetto, another Fratelli d'Italia ‘bigwig’, also said in a sibylline manner: „It is a question that the premier and Santanchè must face. Especially Santanchè.“
According to the newspaper the premier is „angry and disappointed“ by the minister's wall that is exposing the majority to a „media drip“.
In short, it is not excluded that in the end it will be the Prime Minister herself who formally asks her to step back. At Palazzo Chigi, a strategy is being considered to unravel a tangled skein to such an extent that time will eventually be needed.
„Giorgia Meloni has no reason to ask me to resign over. If she should then ask me for them, I will leave a minute later.“ Santanchè continued: „I will resign immediately and not because I am wrong, but because the political implications are clear to me.“