The wife of a prominent
center-right politician has admitted she is behind a Twitter
account with 14,000 followers that specialized in mud-slinging
at the government in the run-up to a December 4 constitutional
reform referendum, center-right newspaper Libero reported
Thursday.
Tommasa Giovannoni Ottaviani, more commonly known as Titti
Brunetta, revealed to the paper in an interview out today that
she used the alias of Beatrice Di Maio, an ardent - albeit
non-existent - supporter of the populist, euroskeptic 5-Star
Movement (M5S) to launch vitriol-laced tweets targeting
government officials and President Sergio Mattarella.
The tweets even drove Lorenzo Lotti, the cabinet secretary
with the media portfolio, to sue their author for defamation
after they insinuated he is a member of the Mafia.
"But my husband has nothing to do with this," said the
50-something interior decorator, who married then-minister
Renato Brunetta in 2011.
"He never knew anything about what I was doing".
Brunetta currently serves as Lower House whip for ex-premier
Silvio Berlusconi's center-right Forza Italia (FI) party.
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