Minister of Culture Gennaro Sangiuliano breaks the silence and writes a letter to the newspaper The Press in which he assures that the Ministry has never used public money to reimburse Maria Rosaria Boccia for travel and that the woman has never had access to confidential documents on the G7 Culture in Naples. But she denies this, publishing on Instagram the screenshots (blacked out in the sensitive parts) of two documents relating precisely to the G7 and claiming that the reimbursements had been promised to her.
The case is becoming increasingly embarrassing for the Government: yesterday evening, Monday 2 September, the Prime Minister – interviewed during the TV programme Four in the Evening on Rete 4 – had spoken about the story for the first time, assuming Sangiuliano’s version was correct.
The minister, Meloni said, “guarantees me that this person has not had access to any confidential document, particularly regarding the G7 and above all he guarantees me that not one euro of Italian or public money has been spent on this person”.
Today The Press publishes Sangiuliano’s letter. “I take the opportunity of the photo of the meeting at the ministry on August 15 in which Dr. Maria Rosaria Boccia is confused with a general director of the ministry, to clarify”, writes the Minister of Culture, who speaks of a “media storm” in which “it is difficult to distinguish authentic fake news from real facts that must also be brought back into the right dimension”.
And here is the minister’s official version: “I met Dr. Boccia in mid-May during the campaign for the European elections (and not in the 2022 electoral campaign, in which I did not participate as I was the director of TG2 at the time), and I found that they shared the same views.”
“Subsequently – explains Sangiuliano – I matured the intention to confer to Dr. Boccia the task, free of charge, of advisor to the minister for major events”. “A task, I repeat, always proposed free of charge”.
The minister claims that the appointment, however, was never formalized: “After the first phase of investigation, taking on board some doubts from the Cabinet on the possibility, albeit merely potential, of conflicts of interest, I decided not to proceed with the appointment and I communicated this formally”, he explains.
“During this time – Sangiuliano guarantees – Dr. Boccia has never taken part in administrative proceedings. I believe it is important to underline that never a single euro from the ministry, not even for a coffee, has been used for Dr. Boccia’s travel and accommodations”.
The minister then focuses on the G7 Culture that will be held from 19 to 21 September between Naples and Pompeii. “On 3 June,” he says, “I went to the Archaeological Park of Pompeii to visit the metal scaffolding that allows visitors to watch restorers and archaeologists at work. It was not an inspection regarding the G7, so much so that the ministry managers who work on its organization were not present.”
“In any case,” adds Sangiuliano, “the occasions in which” Boccia “was present did not have an institutional character at all, nor even in the broad sense of an investigation of the G7. Never – assures the minister – were security issues discussed, which, among other things, do not concern the ministry of culture, but the institutions in charge, the prefecture and the police headquarters.”
During the night between yesterday and today, however, Boccia intervened on social media, dismantling the minister’s version. The mysterious “failed consultant” published two documents relating to the G7 Culture of which only the heading is readable, relating to the part “Culture: global public good, global responsibility” and the “work sessions (4 sessions of one hour each)”.
Regarding the alleged reimbursements for trips made alongside the minister – reimbursements that, as we have seen, Sangiuliano categorically denies – Boccia writes: “I have never paid anything. I have always been told that the ministry reimbursed the expenses of the councilors, so much so that all the trips were always organized by the chief of the minister’s secretariat”.
The woman also claims that her appointment as consultant to the minister was formalized, only to be withdrawn later: “Are we sure – she writes on Instagram – that the appointment did not take place? To me, the voice asking to tear up the appointment sounded female… Shall we listen to it again together?”
And again, on the G7: “So we never had operational meetings? We never did site inspections? We never exchanged information”.
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