Who is Francesco Spano, minister Giuli's new chief of staff

Appointed today the new chief of cabinet of Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli: he is lawyer Francesco Spano, who thus goes to take over the role that until the day before yesterday had been Francesco Gilioli’s, whose appointment was revoked by Giuli himself “since the fiduciary relationship had ceased to exist,” a scanty note read. Francesco Spano, from Pisa, born in 1977, is a lawyer registered with the Grosseto Bar, has taught at the universities of Siena, Pisa and Rome La Sapienza, and has a long list of institutional appointments in his resume: he was a collaborator of Giuliano Amato when he was minister of the interior, he was head of the Department for Intercultural Dialogue Policies of ISIAMED (Italian Institute for Asia and the Mediterranean), and then again a consultant to thebureau of Federculture, served as scientific-legislative consultant for the UN agency UNICRI of the United Nations, directed the cultural center of the Diocese of Pitigliano, Sovana and Orbetello, and served on the boards of several companies.

Until 2017, he was also director of Unar, the National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office of the Prime Minister’s Office (the office operates in the area of Equal Opportunity and oversees the removal of unequal of treatment between people, through investigations of discriminatory phenomena, promotion of projects in collaboration with associations, formulation of recommendations and opinions, promotion of studies and research in the field, and much more), from which he resigned after a scandal broke out that year: it had in fact emerged that funds the government had allocated to Unar had been misused. In particular, Unar allegedly funded, with 55,000 euros, an LGBT association in whose clubs paid sex was hosted. Spano, claiming the correctness of the procedure (funding was disbursed on the basis of what was declared in the statutes of the associations that received resources from Unar), had nevertheless submitted his resignation. However, in 2018 the Court of Auditors ruled that the notice by which Unar financed and funded associations was correct and that Spano had behaved legitimately.

Despite this, the Pro Vita association, which defends the so-called traditional family, has sparked a controversy around Spano’s appointment, recalling that in 2017 the current council president Giorgia Meloni called for the closure of theUnar, appointing Spano herself (“We ask that the Unar, the self-styled National Anti-Racial Discrimination Office of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers,” Meloni wrote on her Facebook page on February 20, 2017, “be closed today. Italy has no need of an ’office’ that with one hand funds a gay association in whose circles paid sex would be consummated and with the other writes letters to parliamentarians to censor their thinking. Not one more euro of Italians’ taxes should be thrown away to pay the salaries of gentlemen, such as Unar director Spano, who in an obvious conflict of interest allocate tens of thousands of euros of public money to associations of which they are members. Fratelli d’Italia will submit an urgent question today calling for the immediate closure of Unar and the resignation of its director Spano.”)

Giuli therefore decided to ignore the controversy and once again avail himself of the collaboration of Spano, with whom he had already worked at the time of the presidency of MAXXI in Rome: in fact, the lawyer was secretary general of the museum.

Who is Francesco Spano, minister Giuli's new chief of staff

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