Italian minister quits over ex-lover's consultancy imbroglio

By Alvise Armellini and Angelo Amante

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano quit on Friday after a controversy over a consultancy role for his former mistress had become an embarrassment for Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's government.

Sangiuliano, a 62-year-old former journalist, had faced a media storm since self-proclaimed fashion entrepreneur Maria Rosaria Boccia said last month she had been nominated "Adviser to the minister for major events".

The culture ministry initially denied such an appointment, but Sangiuliano later explained he had agreed to take her on as an unpaid consultant before changing his mind due to conflict of interest.

"I deem it necessary for the institutions and for myself to hand in my resignation," Sangiuliano said in Friday's letter to the prime minister, defending his record and denying any breach of ministerial rules.

In a tearful prime time TV interview on Wednesday, Sangiuliano had acknowledged that Boccia had been his lover, apologised to his wife and Meloni, and said the prime minister had rejected his first offer to resign. 

The case has dominated front pages and evoked comparisons with past sex-and-politics scandals, including the infamous "bunga bunga" night parties hosted by former premier Silvio Berlusconi.

In past weeks, Boccia has filled her Instagram account with pictures of herself accompanying Sangiuliano to various public events and showing that she had access to ministry offices and documents.

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Angelo Bonelli, leader of the opposition Green Europe party, filed a complaint to police this week, urging them to investigate the minister for possible misuse of public funds and disclosure of confidential information.

Italy's Audit Court is also looking into the case, its representatives said on Friday. Sangiuliano, who repeatedly said "not a single euro" of public money was spent on Boccia, reacted by saying it would give him a chance to clear his position.

Presenting his achievements in his resignation letter, including fighting alleged cronyism in the disbursement of cinema subsidies, he said this work could "not be sullied and especially stopped by matters of gossip."

Meloni paid tribute on X to Sangiuliano as a "capable person and an honest man." She picked to replace him Alessandro Giuli, head of the MAXXI contemporary arts museum in Rome and also a former journalist. 

It was the first change in her right-wing coalition government, which currently chairs the G7 forum of leading democracies and has over the past two years looked solid, with high popularity ratings and facing a divided opposition.  

Sangiuliano was politically close to Meloni, but not a member of her party. He was a gaffe-prone minister, saying for example at an awards ceremony that he would "try to read" the books that, as a juror, he was supposed to have already read.

(Reporting by Alvise Armellini and Angelo Amante; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne)