Daniela Santanchè

Daniela Santanchè in 2013

Daniela Garnero (born 7 April 1961), commonly known by her former married name as Daniela Santanchè is an Italian politician. Between 2010 and 2011 she served as Undersecretary to the Ministry for the Implementation of the Government Program in the Berlusconi IV Cabinet. She is currently the regional coordinator of Brothers of Italy in Lombardy and served as the Minister of Tourism in the Meloni Cabinet from 2022 to 2026.

Quotes

• I am also here because I could no longer put up with the views of those who – in order to gain legitimacy in the eyes of the financial and media community – go so far as to describe the twenty-year period of fascism as "the absolute evil".

• From the speech to the constituent assembly of the 'La Destra' party on 11 November 2007 in Rome.

• Fini disappointed me because he's afraid of women, because he doesn't believe in meritocracy, and because he makes you feel like he's the only intelligent person around.

• Quoted in Paola Di Caro, Santanchè e la Destra: «Avremo la bava alla bocca», Corriere della Sera (Rome), 12 November 2007.

• Silvio Berlusconi has no respect for women; his life shows this day after day. He told that young woman in precarious employment to marry a billionaire: that is not the solution to precarious employment. Voting for Silvio Berlusconi is the most pointless vote women can cast.

• «Silvio vede le donne solo orizzontali», Corriere della Sera, 26 March 2008.

• (About Muhammad) He was polygamous; he had nine wives, [...] the youngest of whom was nine years old. He was a paedophile. [...] In our culture, he was a paedophile.

• At the TV programme Domenica Cinque, Canale 5, 8 November 2009; visible at La Santanchè attacca l'Islam, Repubblica.it, 8 November 2009; quoted in Santanchè: «Maometto era poligamo e pedofilo. Una moglie aveva 9 anni», Corriere della Sera (Rome), 8-10 November 2009.

• What's the point of tapping a mobster while he's talking to his mother? It's an abuse of power.

• Quoted in Santanché difende privacy dei boss. Pd e Idv: "Governo prenda le distanze", Repubblica.it (Rome), 18 May 2010.

• There is none so deaf as he who will not hear. Disclosing wiretaps that relate to an individual's intimate and private life, rather than to the criminal offences for which the wiretapping was ordered, constitutes an unacceptable violation of that individual's privacy and rights.

• Quoted in Santanché difende privacy dei boss. Pd e Idv: "Governo prenda le distanze", Repubblica.it (Rome), 18 May 2010.

• We have left Silvio Berlusconi alone for too long in his denunciation of the 'iron axis' between judges and left-wing journalists. And we've left the journalists alone for too long. True journalists like Feltri, Belpietro, Ostellino, Ferrara, Fede and Rossella.

• Quoted in I media di B. all'attacco, L'Espresso, 25 October 2010.

• (About Oriana Fallaci) [...] left to her own devices as she imagined a better world.

• Quoted in I media di B. all'attacco, L'Espresso, 25 October 2010.

• (Regarding Gaddafi's visit to Rome) When a Head of State visits think we need to show the respect that we sometimes lack a bit: I don't know if there were acrobats, dwarves and dancers on that occasion, because I wasn't there, so I can't know.

• Battibecco tra Daniela e studentessa su Ruby, immigrazione e donne, Il Corriere Fiorentino, 25 November 2010.

• I do politics, and I am only willing to respond to political arguments. I've never made personal issues out of anything, never gossiped, and never resorted to backbiting.

• «Mai scivolata nel pettegolezzo», ilpost.it, 28 December 2010.

• (Referring to Pier Ferdinando Casini) [...] if you try to be moderate at all costs, in the end you become modest.

• From the TV programme AnnoZero, 12 May 2011.

• Even if they make mistakes, law enforcement officers are never murderers.

• From a tweet, 15 February 2012.

• (About Giorgio Napolitano) I think he's the worst President of the Republic ever.

He didn't keep his word on national reconciliation. He abolished democracy, first conspired with Fini to bring down the Berlusconi government, then conspired to put Monti in Palazzo Chigi, and then conspired with Alfano to support the Letta government, thereby causing a split in our party. He has failed three times. And as head of the CSM, he let them make a scapegoat out of Silvio Berlusconi. The sooner he goes, the better.

• Alberto Maggi, Quirinale/ Santanchè (Fi): Napolitano? Prima se ne va e meglio è, AffariItaliani.it, 11 November 2014.

• Islam is a terminal cancer for the West; it must be eradicated before the metastases spread to Italy.

• Terrorismo, Santanchè (Fi): Islam è cancro terminale Occidente, Lapresse.it, 23 November 2015.

• America and the world need Trump. This is a time for identity, for borders, for exclusion – not for panic-stricken inclusion...

• Tommaso Labate, «Trumpisti d’Italia»: da Santanché a Briatore tutti i fan del candidato, Corriere.it, 2 March 2016.

• Regarding the media reports about his business activities... Some newspapers are spreading huge lies, which is why we are going to file our own lawsuit for damages [...] I hope that in a few years' time, I will have a tidy sum, and that with my damages, I might be able to help someone who needs me more. (13 July 2023)

• Quoted in Santanchè dice che si arricchirà «con tutte le querele», Il Post, 14 July 2023.

Interviews

Lucia Annunziata, In 1/2 h, RaiTre, 24 February 2008

• Berlusconi has allied himself with the worst kind of traitor, Gianfranco Fini.
• Fini has become a party functionary, like so many others.
• I'm not into grey tones; I'm all for black or white.
• The only thing that is certain is that Berlusconi has genuinely been persecuted.
• For a Catholic, absolute evil is the Devil, not Fascism.
• We need to condemn them harshly; all racial laws should be condemned. However, I would never say that fascism is absolute evil, because for me, fascism is not absolute evil.
• Fascism was a period in our country's history, and today, anyone who opposes the cultural hegemony of the left is labelled a fascist, so just think how many times I've been told I'm a fascist. I'm proud to be a fascist, because I'm in good company.

Klaus Davi, YouTube, 29 February 2008

• To build my career, I've never made compromises; I've never given in – in other words, I've never sold out.
• I am one of the few female politicians in Italy who is not a tool of men. I am free and independent in my thinking. In fact, I think I'm more capable of using Berlusconi than the other way around.
• Berlusconi has given me several gifts: bracelets, necklaces and various tokens of affection on public holidays and on my birthdays. He is a generous man who cares about people; there are few like him. We are still friends. For a right-wing woman, this is a very important value, but unfortunately, Silvio has now descended into the political circus.
• Over the course of my career, I have been pursued by several women, and I am flattered by that.

Why? The truth is, women like me because I'm a man.

Paola Setti, «Si vuole la testa di chiunque sbagli Mai quella dei pm», ilgiornale.it, 7 March 2011

• I've said it before, and I'll say it again: after what happened to little Yara, the judges should resign.
• If they had used the same resources and technology for the search as they did to investigate the Olgettina girls, perhaps Yara would still be alive.
• They took it out on the volunteers who were looking for that poor girl, when in fact they are heroes. They even accused the community of Brembate of maintaining a code of silence, without realising that people in the North Italy are like that – they keep their grief to themselves.
• Yara's community needs to know that even if they catch the monster, he'll only serve a third of his sentence, because we've basically forgotten about life imprisonment by now. Not to mention temporary releases – perhaps the first one to attend his father's funeral and the second to visit him in hospital, eh?
• Everyone is calling for everyone to resign. Berlusconi over the Rubygate scandal, Bondi because a rotten wall collapsed in Pompeii, Rosi Mauro over the way she managed the Senate chamber, Calderoli...
• Our individual freedoms – the privacy of our conversations, our post and our homes – are being increasingly curtailed. Nowadays, we're all worried about talking on the phone...

Quotes about

• Daniela Santanché hates going out and going to parties.

• Alessandro Sallusti, quoted in Sallusti, Santanché e le feste, ilpost.it, 24 May 2011.

• Something tells me that the team of Sallusti and Santanchè will prove to be more active, imaginative and dynamic than the team of Feltri and Belpietro. In any case, it will be interesting, given that Sallusti relates to Pavolini in the same way that Feltri relates to Badoglio.

• Gad Lerner, quoted in Lerner: «Sallusti sta a Pavolini così come Feltri sta a Badoglio», ilpost.it, 11 January 2011.

• We need the TSO here; put a straitjacket on her.

• Marco Travaglio, at the TV programme La gabbia, 11 September 2013; quoted in Scontro Santanchè-Travaglio. "Delinquente". "Datele la camicia di forza", Ilfattoquotidiano.it.