Italy has been rocked to its core, after it was revealed the mistress of Italy’s culture minister filmed herself several times with a secret camera hidden in her glasses in the corridors of power.
Gennaro Sangiuliano, 62, was on the verge of tears when he publicly confessed to having an affair with fashion influencer Maria Rosaria Boccia, whom he broke up with over the summer following their passionate affair.
Sangiuliano said he first met Boccia at a party in Naples in May this year, but ended things with her between the end of July and the start of August.
In a apparent fit of rage, the 41-year-old mistress, a highly educated woman with two degrees in economics, has been releasing private conversations that have allegedly implicated Sangiuliano in a corruption and misappropriation of public funds scandal.
She claimed that her former lover has been using public funds to pay for her trips, provided her with confidential information and appointed her as a special adviser despite an apparent conflict of interest.
Boccia appeared to support her claimed with audio recordings of phone calls with government officials, screenshots of flight tickets and photographs of programmes for official government events.
She also used the Ray-Ban Stories sunglasses, which have a built-in microphone and camera, to record herself in the Palazzo Montecitorio, where it is forbidden to film.
The minister claims to have paid for most of her trips out of his own pocket, and denied that his ministry approved an adviser contract.
The minister said: ‘She didn’t have access to classified or confidential documents.’
But she also appeared to counter that, publishing documents on Instagram that she claimed proved her involvement in official meetings, site visits and consultations.
In an interview with Italian media on Wednesday, he tearfully apologised to his wife, Federica Corsini: ‘The first person I have to apologise to, who is an exceptional person, is my wife.’
He also said he had apologised to his boss, Giorgia Meloni, who he said had rejected his resignation letter.
Meloni has not officially commented on the scandal, though said during a meeting on Wednesday: ‘We are making history, and we all need to be aware of it. This does not allow for breaks and pauses, and much less for errors and false steps.’
Her government has been hit by a series of scandals this year, with her tourism minister Daniela Santanchè being investigated for alleged fraud and false accounting.
Meloni herself was forced to dump her long-term partner, the father of her daughter, after he was caught making lewd remarks to his female colleagues at the TV station he worked at.