Claudio Zali to leave the Ticino government at the end of September

Ticino State Councillor Claudio Zali will leave the cantonal government at the end of September. The announcement was made on Wednesday 29 July in a letter sent to Radio Ticino. Zali, president of the Council of State, specified that his resignation would not take effect immediately.

The minister will remain in office for as long as necessary to complete some ongoing work and deal with outstanding matters. After this phase, he will step down for the final months of the legislative term. His successor is expected to be Piero Marchesi, the first unelected candidate on the joint Lega dei Ticinesi and Swiss People's Party list in the 2023 cantonal elections.

The events at the centre of the criticism

Zali joined the Ticino government in 2013. In recent days, he has been at the centre of several revelations. These include a recording made several years ago in which he urged an acquaintance to beat another woman. In the same recording, he said that he had already assaulted her.

It has also emerged that Zali is under investigation by the Ticino public prosecutor's office for abuse of authority and attempted coercion in connection with a case involving a minor detained in a juvenile prison. The Lega politician has rejected the allegations.

In his resignation letter, Zali said that he had not beaten the woman. He explained that he had removed her from his property almost ten years ago after she visited at night. He said he had grabbed her but not hit her. He also described the recording as a private outburst linked to a situation he had described as exasperating.

After the revelations were published, the other Ticino parties had called for his resignation. Mattino della Domenica, the Lega's unofficial newspaper, had also distanced itself from the State Councillor. Ahead of the April 2027 cantonal elections, the Swiss People's Party also reportedly wanted to exclude him from the joint list. Zali had nevertheless decided to stand for re-election.

The Lega described the resignation as a political decision taken to protect the institutions, the movement and the possibility of addressing the ongoing investigations. The party stressed that the decision did not anticipate the public prosecutor's findings and reaffirmed the principle of the presumption of innocence.