The prosecutor’s office also closed the investigation regarding the false accounting of Visibilia. In addition to the Minister of Tourism Daniela Santanchè, her sister, niece, partner and ex are also under investigation. The falsity of the financial statements from 2016 to 2022 has been contested. In the investigation into the alleged fraud on Covid contributions, Santanchè instead risks being sent to trial by the prosecutor’s office. According to reports Republic this morning the magistrate Tiziana Gueli will probably decide after the European elections. At the moment the government is following a common line: no request for the minister to resign. But the opposition is pressing. Elly Schlein, Giuseppe Conte, Nicola Fratoianni, ask for a step back from number one in Tourism. The spokesperson of the FdI senator, Salvatore Tramontano, replied: «Elly Schlein doesn’t get one thing right, the new/old news is only the pre-announced and obvious request for postponement of the prosecutor pending the setting of the preliminary hearing. Even the stones know the big difference.” Minister Antonio Tajani throws water on the fire: «The opposition calls for his resignation every two minutes. There is a request and when the decision is made we will talk about it. It doesn’t cause any embarrassment to the government, it’s a question of personal sensitivity, it will be up to Minister Santanchè to decide.”
The investigations
There are two investigations that involve her: on the one hand the line on the accusation of false accounting for the management of the Visibilia group, on the other that of aggravated fraud on Covid funds. During the months of the pandemic, Visibilia editore and Visibilia Concessionaria would have collected the funds for the Covid fund “a
zero hours” for thirteen employees of the two companies, even if the workers continued to work normally. The prosecutors quantified the contributions for over twenty thousand hours of undue cash at 126 thousand euros, funds that arrived when Santanchè was still managing the company. And the same employees, interviewed by the Financial Police, confirmed that she was informed about the receipt of the contributions.
