A charge against Visibilia srl is dropped. Santanchè: "I'm combative. I don't want the statute of limitations."

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"I'm calm, as always. And I'm combative," says Daniela Santanchè. After a complicated, shaky winter, the Tourism Minister is relaunching her position. The no-confidence motions, the friendly fire, the distancing, and the calls for her resignation are behind her. She's no longer the target of the majority . Yesterday, Santanchè achieved a small result: one charge against Visibilia srl was dropped. During the trial for alleged false accounting, the Milan Court granted the defense's request, declaring the charge against the company linked to the Pitonessa "null" due to the "vagueness" of the wording. The proceedings will continue against the minister and the other defendants. Now it's up to the prosecutor to reformulate a "less deficient" charge against Visibilia srl. But in the meantime, amid protests from prosecutor Marina Gravina (there's a risk of "statutory limitations"), the proceedings will resume on September 16th.

The minister takes it this way: "Is it a good day? It's neither good nor bad. I'm neutral on this decision. But all in all, it seems to me that we're seeing some confusion," Santanchè tells Il Foglio. He's responding from the Foro Italico. He just attended the press conference presenting the Water Ski World Championships, which will be held at the end of August. "It must be clear," Santanchè adds, "that the prolongation of the trial isn't down to me and my defense. It depends on how the charges are written. I, on the other hand, would have liked to move forward, because what I want is an acquittal. Not a statute of limitations." These are words that the Minister of Tourism, out of conviction and perhaps also necessity, has reiterated several times in recent months. Santanchè and justice have been discussed for quite some time now. At least since the summer of 2023, when news broke of the investigation into Visibilia, the company founded by the head of Italian Tourism. Then came the alleged scam involving the INPS (National Institute of Social Security) over the use of the Covid fund (the preliminary hearing was postponed until October). Thus, Santanchè had become the weak link in the Meloni government. The main target of the opposition, which, not without reason, called for her death, recalling all the times—many—she had been the one to call for someone's resignation. And as if in a kind of retaliation, even within her own majority, no one (or almost no one) had committed themselves with conviction to defend her. Indeed, the Brothers of Italy were timid. Her friend Ignazio La Russa, for example, was cautious. At a certain point, the Transatlantic Party was already circulating the name of her successor: Gianluca Caramanna—a Roman MP, close to Giorgia and Arianna Meloni. An advisor to the Ministry of Tourism, he was considered almost a shadow minister, or at least a commissioner. There were even rumors that the prime minister was ready to dump her. "An indictment isn't necessarily grounds for resignation. But there's certainly a reflection to be made. The impact of the measure on the minister's work needs to be assessed. It's an assessment that needs to be made with Santanchè, and perhaps Santanchè in particular needs to make it," Meloni explained in January, with words that many felt were the bare minimum—after days of embarrassing silence—rather than a convinced defense. And when a few weeks later, on February 25, the motion of no confidence was debated for the second time (the first dates back to April 2024), there are no strong interventions in its support from the center-right bigwigs.

In short, the atmosphere wasn't good around the Pythoness. Today, however, she doesn't complain, she just glosses over it: "My party has always been a defender of due process, I have no criticisms to make of anyone. I'm absolutely calm, and I'm certain the truth will come out," Santanchè tells us again. "Obviously, it takes time, and that's my only regret. I would have preferred a quicker time." The minister can't wait to turn the page—it's not a given she'll succeed. The trials will take their course. But in the meantime, the atmosphere seems to have changed; Santanchè has resisted pressure, even from some friendly newspapers, and has taken a small measure of revenge. And if last summer even the beach workers went on strike, this year for the woman "of the Twiga and the Billionaire," as she has defined herself, perhaps it will be a less hectic August. Has the storm abated? "I look in the mirror and I know who I am. That's why I'm calm and determined. I," the minister bids us farewell, "want to move forward." We'll talk about it again in September.

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