The leader of Italy’s right-wing party Lega and Giorgia Meloni’s ally, Matteo Salvini, had been accused of kidnapping and abuse of power for his refusal to allow a migrant rescue boat to dock in Italy in 2019. Now he is acquitted in a court in Sicily.
The court found that Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, and former Minister of the Interior, is not guilty of kidnapping for holding 100 migrants on board a ship, operated by the migrant-friendly organization Open Arms, in 2019 when he was Minister of the Interior.
– I am happy. After three years, Lega has won, Italy has won. Defending one’s homeland is not a crime but a right. I will move forward with greater determination than before, Salvini said after the verdict.
In August 2019, an NGO ship named Open Arms was on its way with 147 illegal migrants from the coast of Libya when Salvini prevented it from docking at the Italian island of Lampedusa.
“Full support”
Open Arms remained at sea for almost three weeks, and the non-governmental organization (NGO) claimed that those on board endured difficult conditions that led to medical emergencies and deteriorating mental health.
Finally, the prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio, decided to seize the ship as a preventive measure after inspecting it. The remaining 89 people on board were allowed to disembark.
Salvini, who leads the anti-immigrant and eurosceptic Lega party, claimed that Giuseppe Conte’s then-government fully supported him in his mission to “close Italy’s ports” to rescue ships with migrants found at sea.
Met with applause
The news of Salvini’s acquittal was met with applause and chants of “Matteo, Matteo” from the conservative benches in the Italian parliament, where lawmakers were working on the budget.
– The acquittal of Matteo Salvini is fantastic news, wrote Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday evening. Let’s continue together, with perseverance and determination, to fight illegal immigration, human trafficking, and defend national sovereignty. Hooray!.
– There is a judge in Palermo!, wrote Italy’s Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. A hug to Matteo Salvini, he added.
– Justice has prevailed, bravo Matteo Salvini, another victory for Patriots for Europe, wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.
In September, the prosecutor requested a six-year prison sentence for Salvini as well as damages of over 1 million euros if the court had found him guilty.
“The entire government’s solidarity”
Salvini repeatedly defended himself during the trial, stating that he was simply protecting the country’s borders by preventing migrants from landing on Italian soil, and that he was doing “what the Italians had asked him to do: to defend the nation”.
The right-wing Prime Minister Meloni and other government members have shown constant support for Salvini in recent months.
– It is incredible that a minister in the Italian Republic risks 6 years in prison for doing his job of defending the nation’s borders, as required by the mandate he received from the citizens, Meloni wrote on September 14, the same day the prosecutor requested six years in prison for Salvini.
After Meloni’s comments, opposition leader Elly Schlein criticized her for commenting on an ongoing trial. “I found Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s post very inappropriate,” she said. “We believe that the executive and the judiciary are separate and independent. Therefore, institutional respect would require not commenting on ongoing trials.”
In a speech to the Italian Senate on Wednesday, Meloni reiterated her support for the minister. “Salvini has the entire government’s solidarity,” she said.
In the European Parliament on Thursday, members of the EU group Patriots for Europe, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and the leader of the Spanish Vox party Santiago Abascal, posed with a t-shirt featuring Salvini’s face and the message “guilty for defending Italy”.
Trump also supported Salvini:
“Crazy that Salvini is being tried for defending Italy!” wrote tech billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday. “You did the right thing.”