Sangiuliano takes a leaf out of Trump’s book with Campania election slogan as Boccia withdraws from race.
Italy’s former culture minister Gennaro Sangiuliano has launched the slogan ‘Make Naples Great Again’ as he seeks election as a regional councillor in the upcoming elections in the southern Italian region of Campania.
Sangiuliano – who resigned as minister last year following a high-profile scandal involving his relationship with his former advisor Maria Rosaria Boccia – is running in the election as the top candidate for premier Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing Fratelli d’Italia party.
In recent days, the Neapolitan politician and journalist has been seen at election campaign events sporting a red cap containing the ‘Make Naples Great Again’ slogan in white letters.
The ex minister has ordered the manufacture of 500 such hats, inspired by the ‘Make America Great Again’ election slogan used by US president Donald Trump.
Sangiuliano, 63, launched the red peaked hat at an election dinner at Europeo Mattozzi, a historic restaurant in the heart of Naples, on Tuesday evening.
By chance, the former German chancellor Angela Merkel was also in the restaurant at the same time and joined Sangiuliano’s supporters in an improvised chorus of the Neapolitan song Funiculì funiculà!, according to newspaper Corriere della Sera.
Trump
In an interview with Il Fatto Quotidiano newspaper on Wednesday, Sangiuliano described his election slogan as “a Neapolitan reinterpretation” of the one used successfully by Trump.
“However, we must be precise: the first to coin the slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ was the great Ronald Reagan, and then Trump”, Sangiuliano said, recalling that he had written books about both US presidents.
“We must make Naples great, because Naples has all the makings of a great city, because it is great in its spectacular landscape, it is great in its history, and because we have been a great civilisation”, Sangiuliano said, adding that the Campania region “has witnessed the historical succession of extremely important civilisations, from the Greek world to the Roman world.”
In between resigning in September 2024 in the wake of the affair scandal and running for election in Campania, Sangiuliano had resumed work as a journalist with state broadcaster RAI, operating as Paris correspondent since April of this year.
Maria Rosaria Boccia withdraws from race
The launch of Sangiuliano’s election slogan coincides with the news late on Wednesday that his former mistress Maria Rosaria Boccia, the businesswoman with whom he had an affair last year, announced that she was pulling out of the Campania election after receiving her second notice of investigation in just over a year.
Boccia, who was running as a candidate for the small, right-wing Alternativa Popolare party led by the controversial Terni mayor Stefano Bandecchi, said she was “deeply hurt” by news of the latest investigation, deciding to withdraw from the race as she “would not have the strength to face such an ordeal again”.
Investigations
In recent days it emerged that Boccia is under investigation for suspected breach of privacy after she published an audio file of a private conversation between Sangiuliano and his wife, another RAI journalist, news agency ANSA reports.
Meanwhile, a separate hearing is scheduled for 9 February in the earlier case against Boccia, in which she is accused of stalking, assault and unlawful interference, among other crimes, following another complaint filed by Sangiuliano.
Asked by Corriere della Sera last month if he was “worried” about facing Boccia during the election race, Sangiuliano replied: “I’m not saying anything. I have great faith in the Italian judiciary. We’ll just have to wait for justice to take its course.”
The Campania regional elections are scheduled on 23-24 November 2025.
