Elena Chiorino’s full resignation from regional politics deepens the fallout from a steakhouse partnership that has already cost a government undersecretary his post. And the scandal is not over yet.
Elena Chiorino, the Brothers of Italy (FdI) regional councillor in Piedmont, resigned her remaining seat on Monday, completing a political exit that began last week when she stepped down as deputy governor of the region. She is the latest casualty of an expanding scandal rooted in a Rome steakhouse owned by the teenage daughter of a convicted front man for one of Italy’s most feared organised crime bosses.
Chiorino said she was acting out of principle. “It’s a choice I’m making out of a sense of responsibility and for the good of the Piedmont Region, the centre-right majority, and my party, Brothers of Italy,” she said in a statement. “I’m a decent person, and I cannot accept that the developments in an investigation that concerns third parties, and not myself, be exploited.”
What is it about the Biella steakhouse?
The affair centres on the Biella steakhouse owned by Miriam Caroccia. She is an 18-year-old whose father, Mauro Caroccia, is the main convicted front man for Michele Senese — the Neapolitan Camorra boss who controls organised crime operations in Rome. Chiorino was a partner in the restaurant, set up in 2024, alongside Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro Delle Vedove. Delmastro, a senior figure in FdI and a fellow native of Biella, resigned last Tuesday as the affair became public.
On Monday, it emerged that Caroccia father and daughter are now under fresh investigation. It also came to light that Delmastro had divested himself of his stake in the steakhouse before his most recent parliamentary assets declaration, a detail unlikely to reduce scrutiny of his conduct.
Chiorino serves as FdI’s national pointwoman on work and company crises, making her visibility within the party significant. Other FdI regional figures are reported to be under pressure to quit after also being identified as co-partners in the Caroccia restaurant, suggesting the affair may have further to run.
Part of a larger purge
The double resignation of Chiorino is only the latest episode in a turbulent fortnight for Premier Giorgia Meloni’s government and party. As we have reported, three government figures resigned in the days surrounding the government’s defeat in last week’s referendum on Justice Minister Carlo Nordio’s constitutional reform of Italy’s justice system.
Delmastro went on Tuesday alongside Nordio’s Chief of Staff Giusi Bartolozzi, who had become a referendum liability after telling a television programme that the reform would eliminate magistrates operating like “execution squads”. Tourism Minister Daniela Santanchè followed on Wednesday evening, almost 24 hours after Meloni had publicly said she should go, amid multiple criminal investigations into her business affairs.
Meloni is now widely reported to be engaged in a deliberate effort to clear her party and executive of figures likely to cause problems in the run-up to the next general election. The current parliamentary term is due to end in 2027.
