To avoid ending up on trial, Tourism Minister Daniela Santanché will have to defend herself in a preliminary hearing against the accusation of having unduly obtained the zero-hour Covid redundancy fund for 13 employees of the Visibilia Editore and Concessionaria companies. The Milan prosecutor’s office, after having closed the investigation last March 22, has decided to request the indictment for her, her partner Dimitri Dimitri Kunz d’Asburgo Lorena and the external collaborator who managed the staff of the companies of the Visibilia group Paolo Concordia . All three, together with the companies, are accused of aggravated fraud against the INPS for a sum of 126 thousand euros because – according to the deputy prosecutor Laura Pedio and the deputies Maria Giuseppina Gravina and Luigi Luzi «they obtained an unfair profit, with corresponding damage” for the social security institution “consisting of the undue perception of the sums paid by INPS as redundancy payments, directly to employees or as compensation to the company”, Visibilia Editore and Visibilia Concessionaria.
From the investigations of the economic-financial police unit of the GdF of Milan, Santanché, Kunz and Concordia would have «falsely declared» that the 13 employees, between Publisher and Licensee, had «total exemption from work activity, while in fact they had continued to carry out their duties, according to current contracts, in smart working”. Neither the senator nor her partner, who held top roles in the companies, during the period of the protests, between May 2020 and February 2022, presented defense briefs or asked to be questioned by prosecutors. The only one to do so was Concordia who underlined to the investigators that he had always been the one managing the employees and their payments without bringing Santanché into play.
The Democratic Party attacks the minister. Elly Schlein asks: “Brothers of Italy is that party that expresses a minister with a request for indictment for INPS fraud on Covid funds, and at the same time nominates an anti-vax just under Giorgia Meloni. We expect that the President of Council has a minimum of respect for the institutions and asks for the resignation of Daniela Santanché”.
Salvatore Tramontano, spokesperson for Minister Santanchè, responds to her: “The secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein doesn’t get one thing right, she talks about Santanchè being sent to trial while the new/old news is only the pre-announced and obvious request for postponement from the Prosecutor pending the setting of the preliminary hearing; even the stones know the big difference.” And he adds: “he asks for respect for the institutions when she is the first to remain silent and not express solidarity in the face of the sexist insults aimed at President Meloni. It is clear that he really doesn’t know what to do to regain consensus that he doesn’t have” .
Antonio Tajani, Foreign Minister, also replies: “The opposition asks her to resign every two minutes. There is a request, when there is a decision then we will talk about it. It does not create any embarrassment for the government. It is a question of personal sensitivity, it will be Let me decide. I’m a guarantee, as I did with Decaro, I’m not going to get angry with people.”
