Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè has been sent to trial by preliminary hearing judge Anna Magelli for false corporate communications in the Visibilia case, one of the companies in the group she founded and from which she resigned. The trial that will open in Milan is the first that the senator will have to face in her capacity as an entrepreneur.  

Along with Minister Santanchè, 16 other defendants are going to trial, including her partner Dimitri Kunz, her former partner Canio Giovanni Mazzaro, her sister Fiorella Garnero, her niece Silvia Garnero and Antonino Schemoz, administrator of the group since August 2019 after the minister and then liquidator of the companies. Visibilia srl in liquidation also went to trial.

Then, on January 29, the Court of Cassation will have to decide on the jurisdiction between Milan or Rome on the case in which Santanchè and others are accused of aggravated fraud against INPS for the matter of the redundancy fund in Visibilia during the Covid period.

In addition, the minister is also under investigation for bankruptcy after the failure of Ki Group srl , a company in the bio-food galaxy once led by the senator. Judicial liquidation that, in December, also involved Bioera, another company in the group, and therefore also in this case there are bankruptcy profiles under consideration.

The reactions to the GUP's decision were immediate. "It is a decision that leaves a bitter taste in our mouths, but we were expecting it a little, we are ready to demonstrate our lack of involvement in the charges in the trial", said lawyer Nicolò Pelanda, defender of Daniela Santanchè, explaining that the Minister of Tourism "expected a different outcome".

The opposition is instead asking for the intervention of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni to urge the minister to step down . "Daniela Santanchè has been sent for trial. Just a week ago Giorgia Meloni said she wanted to wait for the decision of the judiciary: now it has arrived. She can no longer continue to pretend nothing is happening", said the secretary of the Democratic Party Elly Schlein . Adding: "You, who when you were in opposition asked for resignation for much less, what do you do now? Will you change your mind on this too? A Prime Minister cannot use double standards, especially towards the friends she wanted in government and for whom she is now politically responsible. The trial will take its course to ascertain whether she is guilty, but when the accusations are so serious, those who hold the highest institutional positions must step back. Daniela Santanchè should resign. And Giorgia Meloni must demand her resignation" , concluded the Democratic leader.

"Today also comes the news of the indictment for false accounting in the Visibilia affair for Minister Santanchè. We insist on the immediate resignation of the Minister, without wanting to anticipate the outcome of the criminal trials", the comment, instead, of the president of the M5S, Giuseppe Conte.

(Unioneonline/lf)

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