The Hungarian foreign minister refers to a double standard, which is why the Italian prosecutor's office requested a six-year prison sentence for former Italian interior minister Matteo Salvini, while Ilaria Salis, who allegedly committed serious bodily harm as a gang member in Hungary, is currently entitled to immunity in the European Parliament.
On Friday, October 18, the Italian court heard the closing arguments in the trial of Matteo Salvini, Italy's minister responsible for transport and infrastructure. Proceedings were initiated against the League party president in 2021, because in 2019, as Minister of the Interior, he did not allow a ship carrying 147 refugees rescued from the sea to land on Lampedusa for 19 days, which took them from the water in the Mediterranean Sea near Libya.
For this reason, the prosecutor's office accuses the Italian far-right politician of kidnapping and breach of duty, who, according to the prosecutor's office, violated international law in order to forge political capital. The document International Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR Convention) states that everyone who is in trouble at sea must be given help and a safe place must be provided for them - indeed, the 147 migrants were rescued from the Mediterranean Sea by the Open Arms ship.
During the closing speeches, Matteo Salvini's defense lawyer asked for the exoneration of the former interior minister, who had previously stated that he did not regret his actions and would make the same decision again.
If Salvini is found guilty, he could be sentenced to up to six years in prison and banned from holding office.
According to Matteo Salvini, the proceedings against him are politically motivated and would still hold up the ship today, many of whose passengers were brought ashore for health reasons during the three-week embezzlement, while many threw themselves into the water to swim to Lampedusa. In the end, the court ruled that Salvini could not prevent the mooring of the ship, so the 89 migrants still on the ship reached land safely.
Many people stood up for the president of the League, even Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni expressed her solidarity. Several members of the European party family Patriots for Europe (PfE) participated in the party's general meeting on October 7. Among others, the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Geert Wilders, the leader of the Dutch Freedom Party (PVV), and the president of the Portuguese Chega, André Ventura, also appeared in person at the forum, while the president of the French National Compact, Jordan Bardella, supported the former interior minister in a video message.
Péter Szijjártó also spoke
After Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Gál Kinga, another Hungarian politician has now pledged solidarity with Matteo Salvini. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó published a message on his social media page in which he criticized the Italian justice system.
Is everyone out of their minds here?
- begins his post by Péter Szijjártó, who then compared the case against Matteo Salvini to the case of MEP Ilaria Salis. Salis was detained in Hungary for almost half a year after, according to the accusation, he beat up several passers-by as a member of a gang. Salis came to Hungary during the Breakout Day of 2023, which is mostly attended by neo-Nazis, to remember that on February 11, 1945, Nazi and Hungarian soldiers tried to break out of Buda from the closing Soviet siege ring.
Since then, Ilaria Salis has been a representative of the far-left to center-left Left in the European Parliament (GUE/NGL), after she won a mandate as a candidate for the Italian Union of the Greens and the Left, so she is entitled to immunity.
Two Italian cases with "justice" and the European left mainstream. Matteo Salvini defended Italy's borders, thus the safety of the country and its citizens, when he did not allow a ship carrying illegal migrants to dock in Italy. Consequence: the Italian prosecutor's office asked for six years in prison
- Péter Szijjártó expressed his opinion regarding Mattei Salvini's case, who then expressed his opinion regarding Salis' case as follows:
Ilaria Salis came to Hungary as a member of a gang to beat up random passers-by on the streets of Budapest. Consequence: the left took refuge in the European Parliament.
- Szijjártó compares the two cases, in which one of them is accused of violating international law, and the other of serious bodily harm. He ends his post with the same question he started his post with:
Is everyone out of their minds here?
Court proceedings were initiated against Matteo Salvini in 2021 for not allowing the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms to disembark with 147 migrants rescued from the sea on board. After nearly three weeks of bribery, the ship was finally allowed to dock in Lampedusa after the court ruled that Salvini could no longer hold the ship up.
Incidentally, proceedings were initiated against the former interior minister in connection with another similar case, but it was terminated in May this year because, according to the court, Matteo Salvini did not commit a crime. Salvini is currently a member of the Italian government, as the minister responsible for transport and infrastructure, he is present in the government of the center-right to far-right Brothers of Italy - Forza Italia - League parties led by Giorgia Meloni.
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Featured image: Péter Szijjártó/Facebook
