His comments come after coming under fresh pressure to resign.
“We had a relationship, for this reason I revoked her appointment” as advisor to the culture minister for major events, Sangiuliano told the news program.
He said he had offered his resignation to Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, but she had declined.
Influencer Maria Rosaria Boccia, 41, with whom the 62-year-old Sangiuliano has admitted having a relationship, on Wednesday published documents on Instagram disputing government claims.
Her Instagram posts contradict Sangiuliano’s claims that she was never allowed undue access to events and security information, and that no public money was spent for expenses connected to her participation in events.
The minister said Boccia’s role as advisor for major events was never finalised.
In the interview to Tg1, Sangiuliano explained that he had handed in his resignation during a meeting with Meloni on Wednesday afternoon, but she had told him to stay.
“I am ready to resign immediately after Meloni asks me, but I have reassured her with documental evidence that this is only gossip, which I realise is annoying,” Sangiuliano said.
“But never a euro of [the Italian taxpayer] was spent” for Boccia and “no reserved documents ever circulated,” he claimed.
“[The prime minister] told me to go forward and to immediately clarify the point of truth.
“She told me, ‘Always be sincere and always tell the truth.’”
The culture minister denied that reserved documents for the G7 Culture summit scheduled to take place later this month were ever violated.
“Absolutely not! Only marginal aspects of the G7 were released but no classified or reserved documents,” he told his interviewer, Tg1 editor in chief Gian Marco Chiocci.
Sangiuliano also apologised to his wife, “an exceptional person”, and to Meloni for the “embarrassment procured to her and her government”, as well as to his staff.
Meanwhile, centre-left Democratic Party lawmakers in the parliamentary oversight commission on RAI issued a joint statement blasting the interview.
“[The interview was broadcast] without the participation of the opposition, with the only voice of the minister,” they lamented.
They claim the one-sided interview constituted “nothing other than a private use of a public service”.
They went on to say that the “embarrassing story that has involved the minister, institutions and the organisation of the G7 has so far not been clarified”.
Thet have also asked for a meeting with RAI’s top editors in the oversight commission.
ANSA
