Italian Deputy Minister of Justice and member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party Andrea Delmastro resigned on Tuesday after reports surfaced that he owned a stake in a restaurant with mafia connections. TASR informs about it according to a Reuters report.
The newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano found out this month that Delmastro owned a share in a Roman restaurant together with the 18-year-old daughter of Andrea Caroccio, convicted for his ties to the Neapolitan Camorra mafia group. Delmastro has denied any wrongdoing and said he sold his stake as soon as he found out.
However, La Repubblica later published a joint photo of Delmastro with Caroccio from 2023according to which it can be assumed that the men knew each other personally. The Deputy also did not declare his share to Parliament as required.
In his resignation, Delmastro said he made a mistake but did nothing illegal. “I have always fought crime and achieved concrete, important results. Although I did nothing wrong, I made an error in my judgment that I corrected as soon as I realized it. I take responsibility for it.” stated.
The scandal also affected the last days of the campaign before the referendum on the constitutional reform of the judiciary. Both Prime Minister Meloni and Minister of Justice Carlo Nordio refused to resign after his failure.
