Rome, Italy. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli has dismissed two senior aides following an uproar over denied funding for a documentary, adding to months of turmoil and resignations at the ministry. The move comes amid broader political infighting as the government seeks to reshape Italy’s cultural sector.
Dismissals confirmed by government figures
Italian media reported that Giuli fired Emanuele Merlino, head of the ministry’s technical secretariat, and Elena Proietti, head of the minister’s private office. While there was no official communication from the ministry, senior government figures confirmed the dismissals on Monday.
Row over documentary funding on Giulio Regeni
The dismissals followed a dispute over the ministry’s refusal to grant funding to a documentary about Giulio Regeni, the Italian student kidnapped, tortured and killed in Cairo in early 2016, a death Italy has blamed on Egyptian security forces. Giuli called the denial of funding “unacceptable” and said he had not been aware of the decision.
Reasons cited for the two removals
Merlino was reported to have been dismissed over the handling of the funding issue. Proietti’s removal was reported to relate to a separate incident in which she failed to appear at the airport for a ministerial mission to New York last month.
Political reaction and ministry silence
Neither Merlino nor Proietti has commented, and the Culture Ministry declined to comment. Both are prominent figures in right-wing politics, and opposition politicians described the sackings as a sign of growing internal dissent within Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s coalition following its defeat in a referendum on justice reform in March. Sandro Ruotolo, culture spokesman for the centre-left Democratic Party, said it showed “a coalition riven by internal wars, score-settling, clashes between factions and competing leaderships.”
What do you think the dismissals indicate about internal tensions within Italy’s governing coalition?