Salvini relishes court date over migrants he detained on ship
Matteo Salvini, the Right-wing Italian leader, is to be sent to trial on charges of illegally detaining a group of migrants on a coast guard ship that rescued them – a prospect the leader of the nationalist League party is relishing.
Parliament voted yesterday to lift Salvini’s immunity as an MP and to put him on trial for blocking the disembarkation in of 116 rescued migrants from an Italian coast guard ship at a Sicilian port for six days last July.
He had refused to let them off the vessel until other EU countries agreed to take them in, claiming that Italy was being forced to deal with the migrant issue alone.
He is now likely to be charged with abuse of power and illegal detention. If convicted, he faces a prison sentence of between six months and 15 years but said he is confident that the case will ultimately fizzle out.
No date has been set for the start of the trial and the Italian judicial system moves notoriously slowly. Salvini’s determination to be put on trial is a highstakes gamble because a conviction could see him being barred from public office, dashing his hopes of one day becoming prime minister.
When the six-day standoff happened, Salvini was interior minister and deputy prime minister in a coalition government between the League and the populist Five Star Movement.
The coalition collapsed a few weeks later when Salvini withdrew his support, paving the way for the present government, an awkward alliance between Five Star and the centre-left Democratic Party.
While the prospect of facing a criminal trial might be viewed with dismay by most politicians in most countries, Salvini has been saying for weeks that he welcomes the chance to clear his name.
He has also deftly turned the issue to his advantage, portraying himself as a defender of Italy’s borders and -claiming he was acting on behalf of, and with the support of, millions of Italians.
Salvini calculates that the trial will turn him into a martyr in the eyes of many Italians, burnishing his credentials as a nationalist and improving his chances of returning to power if the current coalition collapses.
He told an Italian news agency: ‘‘I am not worried at all and I’m proud of what I’ve done,’’ adding that he would ‘‘do it again when I get back into power’’.
While in government, his policy of closing Italy’s ports to boats rescuing migrants and refugees trying to cross the Mediterranean from Libya proved highly popular.