Time.news – A “political” process who is preparing to face “head held high” with “Christian endurance”. So Matteo Salvini reacts to the indictment, accused of kidnapping migrants aboard the Open Arms for stopping disembarkation, in August 2019, when he was Minister of the Interior. “I’m only sorry for the time I will take away from my children”, he adds the Northern League secretary, who immediately attacks the judges. “What was decided in this courtroom has a political rather than a judicial flavor”, he says, meeting the journalists alongside his lawyer. Giulia Bongiorno.
An expected blow
In the League they try to cushion a ‘blow’ that was expected anyway. “I do not go home worried, if I had something to fear I would be worried but I exercised the right / duty of the defense of the homeland, article 52 of the Constitution”, says the head of the party in via Bellerio. “Fortunately, the judges do not decide who wins the elections and who leads the parties,” he continues. For Salvini, the difference of opinion shown by the judges of Catania and Palermo – for two cases in his opinion completely similar, with the gup Nunzio Sarpietro who asked not to proceed with the Gregoretti case – demonstrates the urgency of the initiation of a “justice reformThe Northern League secretary announces that at the trial he could ask for the testimony of Luca Palamara. And back to attack Enrico Letta for his meeting with Oscar Camps, founder of the NGO Open Arms. He does not expect solidarity from the secretary of the Democratic Party, he says; he “has already expressed it – he adds -: putting himself there sweatshirt of foreigners” di Open arms.
The silence of dem and M5s
In the government majority, Pd and M5s choose silence before the news of Salvini’s indictment. Among the dem there are no comments while in the 5 stars the only one to speak is the president of the Justice Committee of the Chamber Mario Perantoni, who is keen to emphasize that the foundations for the reform of justice have already been started but concern the fair trial (“Nobody thinks of reforming the judges, their autonomy and independence to guarantee the equality of citizens before the law”) .
On the other hand, on 30 July last, M5s, Pd, Iv, Leu and Autonomie had voted in favor of the request for authorization to proceed against the leader of the Lega Matteo Salvini, made by the Court of Ministers of Palermo. The votes against the center-right were not enough and the Senate had authorized.
The solidarity of the center-right
Maximum solidarity, however, from the allies of Forza Italia and Brothers of Italy. “It is shocking that someone who as Interior Minister has done only what his mandate required him to do is sent to trial: defend the borders of the nation and fight mass illegal immigration. To Matteo my sincere embrace”, says the president of FdI Giorgia Meloni. “Why was only Matteo Salvini indicted for the Open Arms affair given that it was a decision shared by several ministers of the Conte I government?”, Asks the national coordinator of FI. Antonio Tajani. “For us the law must be the same for everyone and not subject to political interpretation. We are in solidarity with Matteo Salvini”, he adds.
‘I’m with Salvini’
The solidarity of the Lega people was widespread, while on Twitter, the hashtag ‘I’m with Salvini’ is an Italian top trendThe vice president of the Senate is among the most combative leaguers in support of the leader Roberto Calderoli. “It is really sad, in terms of justice, to see a request for dismissal by the prosecutor in Catania and to see in Palermo, for substantially identical facts, an indictment,” he says. “It is necessary to reaffirm the role of politics, which cannot be subjected to those who must only apply the laws and must not make assessments on decisions that are only political”. “While Salvini goes to trial for defending Italy against smugglers and the organized crime behind it, Letta applauds the Open Arms ferrymen and stays with the illegal immigrants”, notes the former undersecretary. Stefano Candiani. “As it began, with a political vote in the Senate, the Palermo trial of Matteo Salvini stinks from afar of a new attempt at a judicial shoulder by the Pd against the Lega and Salvini. Let’s not forget the background of the Palamara case”.
“If the judiciary were to be consistent it would have to indict with Salvini the members of the government of the time, who with him, as can be seen also from the parliamentary documents, shared choices and procedures. If that of the Senate was a ‘political’ choice, in my opinion in contrast with the facts, but taken in a political forum anyway, on the basis of questionable political evaluations, the evaluation of the Palermo judiciary amazes “, he writes Maurizio Gasparri, president of the Senate immunity junta. “Here, too, the decision risks appearing ‘political’, in a forum that should disregard politics. For Salvini, who has a thousand reasons on the merits, which I myself have argued in the Senate as rapporteur, the unfair judgment will be a place for a battle of truth. For the rest, Sallusti’s book on the Palamara case said definitive words. On which Parliament should reflect and act “.
“Forward with Draghi but we will respond blow by blow”
Salvini began the press conference in court by returning to talk about the “satisfaction” for the reopening decided yesterday by the government. In the League, the green light for the loosening of anti-Covid restrictions, especially as regards outdoor activities, is considered a party victory against the line of ‘rigorists’ in the CDM, Roberto Speranza, Dario Franceschini and Stefano Patuanelli.
The Northern League secretary is also satisfied with the results of the vaccination plan which he complimented – he reported – also with General Francesco Paolo Figliuolo.
There are therefore no reasons for the state to question the support of the League – never so convinced as until now – for Mario Draghi’s executive. Even if the ‘coexistence’ with such heterogeneous political forces is increasingly difficult. And the indictment in Palermo risks further complicating the balance built between the crystal glasses. Salvini did not like in any way Enrico Letta’s accelerator on the ddl Zan, pushed a few days after their first face to face, nor the meeting and the photo with the Open Arms sweatshirt on the eve of his Palermo audience. The head of the League feels ‘under attack’ by a part of the judiciary, politically oriented, and it is possible that in the coming weeks this will affect relations between the governing parties. Not so much in a truly destabilizing sense but rather through a Salvinian pressure on the other parties on the requests already expressed in recent days: enough attacks, provocations, daily insults and insistence on divisive issues.
The problem is that Leu and the Pd have also been asking Salvini for some time, in vain, to suspend the intermittently harsh attacks on the Minister of Health Speranza. To make ‘peace’, at least sign a truce, it takes two.
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