Italian Culture Minister Resigns Amid Media Storm Over Move To Hire Lover As A Ministry Advisor

deadline.com:

Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resigned on Friday as a media storm over his move to a hire influencer and love interest as a ministry consultant showed no sign of abating some two weeks after it first broke.Sangiuliano’s departure marks a blow for Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who appointed him to the role as one of 24 ministers in the government she formed after her far-right Brothers of Italy party swept to victory in general elections in October 2022.

With his penchant for 19th Century patriotic poetry and Mussolini-era writers and philosophers, Sangiuliano’s appointment sparked unease among the country’s mainly centre-left to leftist leaning film and TV professionals.

His time in the role has seen discontent at state broadcaster Rai, with journalists going on strike earlier in this May in protest at the government taking “suffocating control” and turning the network into a “megaphone” for its politics, while the minister also set in motion a drive to appoint right-leaning allies to key posts like president of the Venice Biennale, the San Carlo Theatre in Naples and the Teatro di Roma.

He cited his achievements in his resignation letter as getting museums and cultural sites to open in holiday periods and the acquisition of the abandoned Palazzo Citterio in Milan.