Italy: Senate Votes to Allow Prosecution of Matteo Salvini

Hat tip Vlad Tepes and Gates of Vienna. Translation by Fousesquawk.


Today the Italian Senate voted 149-141 (with one abstention) to allow former interior minister and head of the Lega Party, Matteo Salvini, to be prosecuted in Sicily for his efforts as interior minister to stop the arrival and unloading of boats carrying migrants to Italy from North Africa.

Salvini took to the floor of the Senate today and announced that he will not bend, rather he will walk into the courtroom with his head held high. (We are working on a translation of excerpts of his speech, and it will be posted shortly.) *Update: Here it is:

This is a sad day for Italy and a sad day for the principles of democracy in that country. From my own days in Italy as a DEA agent in the 1980s, I know that there are many overzealous prosecutors who wield too much power. As interior minister, Salvini was doing what any responsible official would do. He was attempting to stop the human trafficking that was posing as some sort of human rights campaign to bring hundreds of thousands of people across the Mediterranean into Italy and then on to other countries in Europe.

Unfortunately, the leftist opposition used parliamentary intrigue to oust Salvini from government, thus, resuming the disembarkations.  Now they have voted to leave him to the sharks to be prosecuted for -get this- kidnapping, for refusing to allow the disembarkation of over 100 migrants brought to Italy by an NGO ship.

Today's situation in Italy confirms that Salvini was correct. With the country fighting the covid crisis, new arrivals are coming every day to Italian ports, mostly at Lampedusa. The reception centers are overwhelmed and hundreds of migrants are simply walking away from the camps and disappearing. The crime, homelessness, and drug dealing is going through the roof, and more and more migrants take over the streets of Italy's cities, from Sicily to Rome to Florence to Milan.

What is happening to Salvini in Italy is happening to others in Europe-to Geert Wilders in the Netherlands, to Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolfe in Austria,  Marine Le Pen in France, and others for opposing the mass re-population of the European continent.

The EU is turning into a latter day Soviet Union. They want this mass migration to continue, to transform the continent into some sort of multi-cultural paradise, where all these migrants, most of whom show little inclination to assimilate and work, are supposed to take up the slack of Europe's declining birth rate and keep the welfare state going. It is a pipe dream.

Note also that Eastern European countries who are opposing this invasion are being punished by the EU. Fortunately, leaders like Hungary's Viktor Orban are still holding their ground.

But for now, all eyes are on Italy. If Salvini is convicted and sent to prison, as far as I am concerned, Fascism has returned to a great country, a country with great people, who deserve much better. Instead they have a government that ignores them in order to march in lockstep with the EU.