Daniela Santanchè resigned as Italy's tourism minister on Wednesday, almost 24 hours after Premier Giorgia Meloni had said she should go amid multiple criminal probes relating to the minister's business interests.
"I won't hide a little bitterness about the outcome of my ministerial journey, but in my life I'm used to paying my own bills and often those of others as well," Santanchè, a Senator for Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, said in her letter to resignation to the premier.
"I care more about our friendship and the future of our movement".
In her letter Santanchè stressed that, at the time of her resignation, her criminal record was "unblemished".
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.
