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Fresh upheaval in the ranks of the ruling majority. Less than 24 hours after the resignation of Daniela Santanchè as tourism minister, Maurizio Gasparri also left his post on Thursday, becoming the fourth to resign in just three days since the defeat of the Yes camp in the justice referendum.
Taking his place as Forza Italia (FI) group leader in the Senate will be Stefania Craxi, currently chair of the Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee.
‘To Stefania Craxi, the new chair of the Forza Italia group in the Senate, I extend my best wishes for her work,’ wrote shortly afterwards Forza Italia’s national secretary and foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, thanking Gasparri for his service in a post on X.
‘I have independently decided to step down as Forza Italia’s group leader in the Senate. Those whose long political journey is based on solidity and a sense of duty, and not only on the office they hold, know how to manage timing and procedure in complex moments. We move forward with consistency, looking to the future,’ Gasparri said.
The announcement of the resignation of the former FI group leader, who said he had taken the decision independently, comes after a letter signed by 14 of the party’s 20 senators calling for his replacement.
According to FI parliamentary sources quoted by Ansa, Gasparri was given around 48 hours to manage his exit strategy. In particular, the move is thought to have been influenced by the wishes of Marina Berlusconi, eldest daughter of the party’s founder, Silvio Berlusconi, who died in 2023, from whom she has so far inherited corporate posts but not, officially, a political role.
Referendum defeat for the majority and a chain of resignations: opposition criticism
The defeat of the Yes camp in the justice referendum has triggered a chain reaction within the governing majority, which on the one hand appears keen to show it has heeded the strong signal from the ballot box, and on the other wants to avoid at all costs a crisis for the government.
In recent days, the undersecretary for justice (from Brothers of Italy) Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove, whose business dealings with a front man for the Senese clan have sparked widespread controversy, and the chief of staff to the justice minister Carlo Nordio, Giusi Bartolozzi (FI), have also left their posts.
Commenting on Gasparri’s resignation, Green and Left Alliance MP Angelo Bonelli spoke of a ‘political crisis in the centre-right’, arguing that the resignations ‘of Bartolozzi, Delmastro, Santanchè and today Gasparri – and tomorrow who knows who – require an acceleration in defining the centre-left’s programme’.
‘The right governing Italy has gone beyond the limits of hypocrisy**: if No had not won, from Santanchè to Delmastro they would all have stayed in their posts,**’ Bonelli said, adding that ‘Italy risks slipping into economic recession, also because of the war and the crazy energy policy pursued by Giorgia Meloni’, and that for these reasons ‘it is necessary to speed up with determination the construction of a credible alternative capable of offering the country a different perspective’.