Amotion of no-confidence in Tourism Minister Danile a Santanbchè will be put to the Lower House by Italy's centre-left opposition on Monday after Premier Giorgia Meloni urged her to resign amid multiple criminal probes relating to her business interests Tuesday night, parliamentary sources said Wednesday.
The motion is virtually certain to pass if, as widely expected, Meloni urges the ruling majority to support it.
Santanchè, a powerful Senator in the premier's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, is apparently ignoring the call from Meloni to follow the lead of a justice undersecretary and the justice ministry chief of staff who resigned on Tuesday.
The premier is reportedly seeking to purge FdI and her executive of potentially problematic figures in view of the next general election, with the parliamentary term set to end next year, after she suffered her first major setback since becoming premier with defeat in Sunday and Monday's referendum on the government's justice-system reform.
Justice Minister Carlo Nordio's Chief of Staff Giusi Bartolozzi and Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove both resigned after becoming embroiled in separate furores seen as damaging the government's referendum campaign.
