Maria Rosaria Boccia in her first interview: 'Sangiuliano is under blackmail'

Still in the balance, still with the sword of Damocles of possible new revelations, chats, photos, recordings or documents that could frustrate the painful bath of sincerity with which the Minister of Culture tried to cleanse his image compromised by the Pompeii scandal on TV. After his interview with Tg1, Gennaro Sangiuliano is trying to resume his work routine at the Collegio Romano, but to say that the waters have calmed down for him would be a lie. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni will not be in Verona this morning for the G7 of Parliaments (only her video link-up is planned).

Maria Rosaria Boccia continues with the stillicide of revelations and accusations. The minister, she says in an exclusive interview with La Stampa, "is being blackmailed", "there are some people who blackmail him for favours they have had". Sangiuliano considers a complaint to the public prosecutor's office. "On tomorrow's day, Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano will have a meeting with his lawyers to consider filing a complaint with the Public Prosecutor's Office," reads a note released by the ministry. E

An entrepreneur for twenty years in the wedding industry, creator of two intergroups in Parliament, specialising in fashion and communication in general. This is how Maria Rosaria Boccia introduces herself in the interview in which she tells for the first time her truth about the Sangiuliano case that has the government in a tizzy. She talks about the trips with the minister ("not only related to his activities"), about who she considers to be Sangiuliano's "real blackmailers" ("ask him, I can tell you that there are editors of weekly newspapers"), about Giorgia Meloni who she accuses of being "sexist" against her. And she explains why, from the end of July onwards, she has decided to record everything about her relationship with the Minister of Culture: 'Because he said a sentence to me that really struck me: "I am the minister, I am a man, I represent the institution and in the future no one will believe anything you say"'. She defends her 'dignity' as a woman and complains that she was 'deceived. But I will not allow my story to be instrumentalised by cynicism, arrogance and the whim of a tyrannical power'. She launches cryptic messages: "Who really gossiped: me, him, or 'the other person', exploiting a strategic moment for the country?".

Not always the missions, according to Boccia's words, were related to the minister's activities. 'We also made personal transfers: Coldplay and Il Volo concerts; from Rome, we drove to Pompeii. We went to my personal and private events, where he wanted to be present. An event at the Air Force base in Rome and another in Rome'. Sangiuliano spoke on TV about a private relationship. A sentimental relationship? 'He should clarify that. There has been a lot of confusion from the beginning in the communication of this sphere'. As for the private chats, 'the minister is a bit confused', says Boccia. He spoke of 'bland chats', but 'with a person with whom I have a relationship I don't just exchange innocent photos and emoticons. I can also exchange some spicier messages'.

In the interview with the Turin newspaper, he vindicates his thesis, stating that the assurances given by the minister on TV 'were not correct'. First, the trips, he reiterates, were paid for by the ministry. Second, what he did with him in Pompeii 'was an inspection for the G7' and not a trip. Thirdly, the Pompeii park director's email contained information on the ministers' itineraries and it was Sangiuliano himself who told Zuchtriegel to send the document to her as well. There is enough to open an enquiry. So much so that 'misappropriation for embezzlement and disclosure of an office secret' are the crime hypotheses that the Green Angelo Bonelli has indicated in the complaint to the Prosecutor's Office of Rome that he filed today in the police offices of Montecitorio.