Italian Council of State rejects tourism-agriculture merger

The Italian Council of State has rejected a decree merging the tourism portfolio with the Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policies, criticizing the legal drafting and the subordinate role assigned to tourism. The decree, championed by Minister Gian Marco Centinaio (Lega), aimed to transfer tourism from the Ministry of Cultural Heritage to Agriculture, but the Council found it poorly conceived, lacking a strategic vision, and marred by syntactic errors. The Council stated that tourism cannot be treated as ancillary to agriculture and called for a balanced coordination. The government must now decide whether to revise the text or ignore the advisory opinion. Centinaio insists the decree is not rejected but only needs clarification. The ruling comes amid positive tourism data: 73% of Italians traveled in 2018, up 6% from the previous year, with 80% choosing domestic destinations.