Palermo
In Italy, there is an open showdown between the judiciary and the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is putting enormous pressure on the courts to spare Vice President Matteo Salvini from prison.
Palermo prosecutors want a six-year prison sentence for the transport minister. The right-wing Lega Party leader is accused of preventing a Mediterranean ship carrying about 150 stranded migrants from reaching safe ports for several weeks while he was interior minister in 2019.
The verdict is expected to be reached after a three-year trial, but the outcome is unclear. However, immediately after the prosecutors’ request, three right-wing Roman coalition parties joined forces to block the guilty verdict.
Meloni wrote on the platform. Salvini himself declared: “I would do everything the same way again. Defending Italy is not a crime.”
Dramatic scene in front of Lampedusa
But prosecutors say the right-wing populist’s deprivation of liberty and abuse of power have been proven. In Italy, the sentence is up to 15 years in prison. In August 2019, Salvini ordered Spanish aid ships not to be allowed to dock at the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa to prevent illegal migration. More than 160 people were on board the Open Arms, which, according to its helpers, was rescued from a shipwreck en route from Africa to Europe.
Dramatic scenes unfolded off the coast of Lampedusa. Several times people jumped into the water and tried to swim to land. The prosecutors finally seized the ‘Open Arms’ after three weeks so that the ship could be docked. Salvini was then interior minister. He also gained international recognition for his tough actions against private aid organizations’ ships, including a conflict with Carola Rackete, captain of the German ship “Sea-Watch 3”. She is now a member of the European Parliament.
“I plead guilty to defending Italy and Italians”
Salvini, now 51, is one of the key figures in the three-party right-wing coalition, but the recent election results have been somewhat disappointing for Lega. He has always rejected criticism of his opposition to “Open Arms” as a leftist political ploy.
He did not appear in court in the Sicilian capital Palermo, but he did appear in a dramatic, nearly four-minute video. In his defense speech, he said: “I plead guilty for defending Italy and Italians. I plead guilty for keeping my promises.”
Along with Meloni and her party Fratelli d’Italia (Brothers of Italy), another coalition partner, Forza Italia, founded by the now-deceased former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, has also jumped on his side. Salvini was merely doing his duty, they said. The minister also received support from Elon Musk, the American tech billionaire who has been in the right-wing populist camp for some time, writing on his Platform X:
Opposition and Judges’ Association criticize Meloni
Meanwhile, the Italian left-wing opposition has accused the Roma coalition of trying to block a conviction in an unacceptable way. Elly Schlein, a Social Democratic PD MP, accused Meloni of ignoring the principle of separation of powers between the government and the judiciary. The opposition has long accused the right-wing government of trying to reform the judiciary for political reasons. The Italian Association of Judges and Prosecutors has also defended itself against Roma’s claims. The statement also referred to “excessive pressure.”
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