Italian justice undersecretary Andrea Delmastro has resigned after it emerged he had held a stake in a restaurant linked to the mafia.
His departure was one of two resignations in Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government on Tuesday, after a referendum to reform the country’s judiciary was defeated.
Mr Delmastro, who is a member of Ms Meloni’s Brothers of Italy Party, held a stake in a Rome restaurant alongside the daughter of a man convicted of having ties with Camorra, a mafia group based in Naples.
Mr Delmastro said he had sold his stake when he learned that his 18-year-old business partner’s father, Andrea Caroccia, had been linked to the organisation.
However, a 2023 photo showing him alongside Caroccia later emerged, suggesting the two men knew each other well.
It also came to light that he did not disclose his stake to parliament.
“I have always fought crime and achieved concrete, important results,” Mr Delmastro said.
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“Although I did nothing wrong, I made an error of judgment, which I corrected as soon as I became aware of it. I take responsibility for that”.
Along with Mr Delmastro, the justice ministry’s chief of staff, Giusi Bartolozzi, also stepped down on Tuesday.
Ms Bartolozzi resigned after she controversially urged voters to back the reform so Italy could “get rid of” a judiciary she described as a “firing squad”.
The departures added to the political turmoil after the referendum to reform Italy’s judiciary failed on Monday, in the first significant defeat for Ms Meloni and her right-wing coalition.
In a brief statement, Ms Meloni accepted the resignations of both officials, and, in an unusual move, also called on her tourism minister Daniela Santanche “to make the same choice”.
Ms Santanche was ordered to stand trail last year on charges of false accounting related to a publishing group she used to own.
She has resisted calls to quit since then, and had enjoyed Ms Meloni’s support.
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The shake-up suggests Ms Meloni is seeking to reassert control by containing the political damage, and signalling she can still act decisively after voters rejected the landmark reforms.
Both Ms Meloni and Justice Minister Carlo Nordio have resisted calls that they should also resign after 54% of Italians rejected the proposal to modernise the country’s judiciary.
