Meloni supports Salvini: Unimaginable to be convicted for preventing immigrants from entering Italy

The Italian Prime Minister expressed solidarity with the Italian Minister of Transport and Secretary of Lega, following the current request of the prosecutors of Palermo for his sentence to six years in prison. Georgia Meloni openly supported Mateo Salvini stressing that “it is unthinkable, a minister of our unruly democracy risking being sentenced to six years in prison for doing his job, defending the nation’s borders, as citizens asked for with their vote.” “To turn into an offence the obligation to protect Italy’s borders from illegal immigration creates a very serious precedent. I express my full solidarity with Salvini,” the Italian Prime Minister added. The case tried in Palermo concerns Mateo Salvini’s decision not to allow, when he was Minister of Interior in August 2019, the landing in Lower Italy of 147 migrants and refugees rescued from the ship of the Spanish non-governmental organization Open Arms. “There is a basic principle, which cannot be questioned. Between human rights and the protection of state sovereignty, based on our democratic principles, the first must always prevail,” prosecutor Jerry Ferrara said in his speech. “Anyone in danger and at sea must be rescued. Regardless of whether he is a passenger, a crew member or an immigrant,” he added. Mateo Salvini is accused of depriving migrants of freedom and refusing to proceed with enforced actions by the state apparatus. For its part, Salvini’s defense attorney, Julia Bunjorno, stressed that “by today’s speech, the prosecutor opposes government orders concerning immigration, against the line on which it should first be decided to redistribute immigrants and only then follow their landing.”