Elvira Amata, Sicily’s regional tourism councillor and a member of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party, has been ordered to stand trial on corruption charges. She is the latest in a series of judicial difficulties to beset the right-wing coalition’s Sicilian operation.
The ruling was handed down on Monday by Palermo preliminary investigations judge (GIP) Walter Turturici. His deliberation lasted seven hours. In the same hearing, businesswoman Marcella Cannariato, who opted for an abbreviated trial procedure, was convicted of corruption and sentenced to two years and six months in prison. Amata’s trial will begin on 7 September before the third section of the Palermo court.
The alleged pact
According to the Palermo prosecution, Amata obtained from Cannariato — legal representative of the company A&C Broker S.r.l. — the employment of her nephew Tommaso Paolucci at the firm between September 2023 and March 2024. Furthermore, she obtained payment of his accommodation costs at the Leone Suite B&B in Palermo, amounting to €4,590 plus VAT.
In return, prosecutors allege, Amata granted a €30,000 public subsidy to the event “Donna, Economia e Potere” — Women, Economy and Power — promoted by the Fondazione Marisa Bellisario, of which Cannariato was the Sicilian regional representative. Cannariato subsequently resigned from that role following the investigation.
The alleged arrangement came to light in a striking fashion. When, after an initial payment to the Bellisario Foundation, Amata appeared to hesitate over a further funding request. Cannariato reportedly exploded: “She can’t say no to me, because I’ll skin her alive.”
Amata has consistently denied wrongdoing. She acknowledged asking Cannariato to hire her nephew, but said she did so “to help him in a moment of great difficulty following a serious bereavement in the family,” insisting there was no corrupt agreement. In a statement following Monday’s ruling, she said she “firmly reiterates her total lack of involvement in the contested facts” and expressed confidence in being able to prove her innocence at trial.
Part of a broader investigation
The Elvira Amata case is one branch of a broader investigation that originated with the corruption scandal surrounding Gaetano Galvagno, president of the Sicilian Regional Assembly (ARS) and a close ally of Senate President Ignazio La Russa. Galvagno faces separate charges of corruption, embezzlement, fraud and forgery; he opted for an immediate trial, bypassing the preliminary hearing stage, which begins on 4 May.
That investigation in turn grew out of an inquiry into alleged fraud and irregularities surrounding Sicily’s participation in the Cannes Film Festival in 2023, with prosecutors examining the award of a €3.7 million contract to a Luxembourg company called Absolute Blue for a project to promote the island through a photographic exhibition.
The scrutiny of Amata’s tourism portfolio does not end there. RAI’s investigative programme Report recently examined the flow of public funds to the Taormina Arte Foundation and the Taobuk literary festival, noting that in 2025 Amata’s department transferred €3.5 million to the foundation. The programme alleged that both Amata and then-Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano were hosted at the festival’s expense at Taormina’s five-star Hotel San Domenico. The suites cost €4,000 per night. Separately, a €1,000 necklace reportedly given to Amata as a birthday gift by the Taobuk festival director became a symbol of the wider questions about the management of the tourism budget.
Calls for resignation of Amata
The opposition was swift. Sicilian Democratic Party secretary Anthony Barbagallo called on Elvira Amata to resign immediately, accusing FdI of treating tourism funds as “its personal cash machine.” FdI is now reported to be analysing the Sicilian situation at the highest levels of the party with the possibility that Amata will be pushed towards resignation. Her resignation would trigger a cabinet reshuffle in the regional government of President Renato Schifani.
The reshuffle calculus is complicated by the fact that other councillors in the Schifani government also face judicial proceedings, including deputy president Luca Sammartino.
And all this only a few weeks after Italy’s Tourism minister Daniela Santanche resigned over her forthcoming court case.
ItalyNews.Online covers Italian politics, crime and current affairs for an international audience.
