process
Italy's deputy prime minister Salvini acquitted
Updated 12/20/2024 – 9:29 p.mReading time: 3 minutes
In 2019, Matteo Salvini ensured that migrants from the Mediterranean were unable to land for weeks. That's why he had to go to court – and now he is surprisingly acquitted.
In the trial surrounding the treatment of migrants on the Mediterranean, Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has been acquitted by a court in Palermo of charges of deprivation of liberty and abuse of office. The case was about the fact that the chairman of the right-wing ruling party Lega, as interior minister, had prevented an aid organization's ship with refugees from entering a port for weeks in 2019.
The public prosecutor's office had demanded a six-year prison sentence for Salvini and viewed his behavior at the time as deprivation of liberty and abuse of office. The ship belonging to the Spanish organization “Open Arms” was docked off Lampedusa with over 160 migrants at the time, but was not allowed to enter the port. People jumped into the water and tried to swim to land. The ship was finally only able to dock after a public prosecutor ordered it – against the minister's stated wishes.
Salvini is now transport minister. As deputy head of government, the 51-year-old is one of the central figures in Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's right-wing coalition. The head of government congratulated her coalition partner after the acquittal. “A verdict that shows how unfounded and surreal the allegations against him were,” Meloni said, according to a statement.
The right-wing Lega politicians also received congratulations from other European countries. “Justice has prevailed! Bravo, Matteo Salvini!” wrote Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on X after the announcement in Palermo.
After the acquittal, Salvini was happy: “After three years, the Lega has won, Italy has won, defending the fatherland is not a crime, but a right. “I will act even more decisively than before,” he said. Salvini hugged his partner and lawyer in the courtroom. “You were all great,” he said to his supporters as they waited in the courtroom for the verdict and applauded after the judge’s announcement.
The director of “Open Arms”, Oscar Camps, announced that he would first wait for an explanation of the judges’ motives. It is hoped that the public prosecutor's office will appeal, he said. “The sadness goes above all to the people who, as we said from the beginning, were deprived of their freedom.” With this process, which is unique in Italian history, the activists wanted to give the migrants back their dignity back.
Before the verdict, Salvini himself described himself as a victim of a politicized justice system and accused it of persecuting him for political reasons. “I am absolutely proud of what I did, I kept my promise, I fought mass migration,” emphasized Salvini upon his arrival in court. “I will do everything I have done again and again. There’s no way I’m going to give up,” the politician added.
Observer had initially expected a sentence of several years in prison. Salvini has stated several times that he wants to remain in office even if he is sentenced to prison. Meloni had already assured him of her solidarity in the event of a conviction. In parliament she said just this week: “Salvini can count on the support of the entire government.” Other coalition partners of the right-wing alliance in Rome are also showing solidarity.
In 2018/19, Salvini was interior minister in a center-right government. At that time, he also made a name for himself internationally through his actions against aid organizations that took refugees on board from boats in the Mediterranean. At times his party got more than 30 percent in elections. However, the Lega is now well behind its larger coalition partner, Meloni's Fratelli d'Italia (Brothers of Italy). In current surveys it comes to around 9 percent.
Italy is one of the countries particularly affected by migration across the Mediterranean. Last year, more than 150,000 new arrivals were recorded arriving on the coast. This year there were significantly fewer – around 65,000 so far. According to the helpers, of the refugees who were finally allowed to disembark in Lampedusa with the “Open Arms” in the summer of 2019, only one lives in Italy today.
