Prosecutors seek six year sentence for Italy’s deputy PM Matteo Salvini

Rome: Prosecutors in Sicily have accused Salvini of alleged kidnapping after he decided to leave a migrant rescue ship stranded at sea for 19 days.

Prosecutors in the Italian city of Palermo on Saturday asked for a six-year prison sentence for far-right Lega leader Matteo Salvini over his decision to prevent a ship carrying more than 100 migrants from landing in Lampedusa in 2019.

A conviction, which in Italy is definitive only at the end of a three-stage judicial process, could also see Salvini barred from holding government office.

The Sicilian prosecutors have accused Salvini — who is currently deputy premier and transport minister in the right-wing government led by Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — of alleged kidnapping due to his decision to leave a migrant rescue ship operated by charity Open Arms stranded at sea for 19 days.

At the time, Salvini served as interior minister in Giuseppe Conte’s government. During his term in office, he imposed a “closed ports” policy under which Italy refused entry to charity ships that rescued migrants in distress across the Mediterranean and repeatedly accused humanitarian organisations of effectively encouraging people smuggling.

During the 2019 standoff, some of the migrants threw themselves overboard in desperation as the captain pleaded for a safe and close port. The remaining 89 people onboard were eventually allowed to disembark in Lampedusa by a court order.

“I would do it all again: defending borders from illegal immigrants is not a crime,” Salvini said in a pre-recorded video statement on his social media on Saturday.

His lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, will make her defence plea in Palermo on 18 October and a first sentence could come by the end of the month.

Meloni and several ministers of her government expressed solidarity with the Lega leader, defending his decisions. Since she stepped into power in 2022, Meloni has pledged a crackdown on migration, aiming to deter would-be refugees from paying smugglers to make the dangerous Mediterranean crossing.

“It is incredible that a minister of Italy risks six years in prison for doing his job defending the nation’s borders, as required by the mandate received from its citizens,” the Italian premier wrote on X.

The leader of the centre-left PD party, Elly Schlein, said Meloni’s words of support for Salvini were an “inopportune intervention”.

“The executive and judicial powers are separate and autonomous (under the) principle of separation of powers,” she said to the domestic press Sunday. “Institutional respect would require not commenting on open trials.”

Salvini’s indictment is the latest in a string of troubles Meloni’s government has faced in recent weeks, highlighted by a scandal that saw now-former Italian Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano resign in the aftermath of an affair made public and allegations of misuse of public funds.

Meloni, who leads the far-right Brothers of Italy party, is also caught in the midst of a major debate on citizenship law reforms, said to be the source of tensions between her and her coalition partners, the centre-right Forza Italia party, and their leader, Antonio Tajani.

Finally, her European Commissioner pick, Raffaele Fitto, might not have an easy path to office in Brussels and is likely to face serious questions from MEPs during the upcoming parliamentary hearings prior to his approval.