Matteo Salvini was indicted for kidnapping and refusal of official documents by the gup of Palermo Lorenzo Jannelli for the Open arms case: the trial will begin on September 15 before the second criminal section of the Court of Palermo. The Northern League leader and former Minister of the Interior commented that he will go with his head held high because “the defense of the fatherland is a sacred duty of the citizen” as the Constitution states. The defender, Giulia Bongiorno, had asked the non-place to proceed. According to the magistrate, based on the first indiscretions, the preliminary hearing must not assess whether or not the accused is criminally liable, but if there are sufficient elements to support the accusation in court and if there are no elements to decide a acquittal: according to the investigating judge the elements for an acquittal were missing. Also in this hearing the Palermo prosecutor was present at the highest level with the prosecutor Francesco Lo Voi, the adjunct Marzia Sabella and the prosecutor Gery Ferrara.
The decision of the gup will have an inevitable impact on politics because it concerns the leader of the first party in Italy, according to unanimous polls, and a fundamental piece of the Draghi government in which it has important ministers starting with Giancarlo Giorgetti. In the debate that will be unleashed on the management of immigration, on the type of crime and on speculations of all kinds, it seems difficult to think that everything will be resolved with a further increase in votes for the League, starting with the administrative of the pandemic, the need for the economy to restart and the decisions to be taken on the Recovery Plan need unity of purpose. Certainly, the role of the judiciary will be discussed at length. THE PEACEFULNESS OF SALVINI AND THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE PROCESS
In the meeting with journalists immediately after the hearing, Salvini sent clear messages: the urgency is the reopening, the abolition of the curfew, the return to life, the desire to work for a government of national unity “as requested by the president Mattarella ”, a calming signal also sent to Mario Draghi. An important signal also for the Northern League base which is certainly boiling after the decision of the gup. “The idea of passing as a kidnapper is ridiculous,” Salvini said, adding that the decision has a “political rather than a judicial flavor”. It will be a “political process”. The Northern League leader also anticipated his intention to summon Luca Palamara, the former president of the ANM, whose chats show how some magistrates agreed with the then Minister of the Interior, who had to be stopped anyway. The senator wished to meet in court “free and independent lawmen” and that in the dock there should be those who play on the skin of migrants. “Truths will emerge”.
The timing of the trial will be very important because it will be necessary to evaluate the application of the Severino law with, in case of conviction, the possible suspension from an elected office before reaching the even more possible forfeiture. However, between 2022 after the election of the President of the Republic and 2023, with the natural expiry of the legislature, a political problem arises on the occasion of the political elections. Too early to make predictions, even if it will also be a test of the compactness of the center-right where the rivalry between Salvini and Giorgia Meloni for leadership is known. THE NEW APPROACH TO IMMIGRATION
The lawyer Bongiorno explained that we were simply faced with a different management of migratory flows and that all the decisions of the time were political acts as it was foreseen by the government contract underlying Count I. In general, the lawyer remarked that only the Palermo magistracy gave a certain interpretation of those facts while other magistracies behaved differently on similar episodes. Before the Court, the defense summons numerous witnesses, including the commander of the Open Arms who refused to go to Tunisia, Malta and Spain because Italy had different legislation: it will be one of the elements of the defense according to which the seizure is configured preventing the freedom of movement of a subject while that ship could go where it wanted.HERRING IN THE CLASSROOM
The hearing included only the harangue of the lawyer Bongiorno who was very detailed, aimed at highlighting the choices of the commander of the Open Arms who had decided to focus on Italy. Summarizing what was written in the logbook and on information from the investigators, the lawyer spoke of “inexplicable wandering” despite the fact that in a couple of days the ship could reach Palma de Mallorca. Furthermore, during the 13 days of waiting, the ship “was not abandoned to itself”, but received offers of help from planes, ships, oil tankers. Therefore, according to Bongiorno, on the one hand it is normal to “loiter” 13 days with migrants on board, on the other, Salvini is challenged for kidnapping for half the time, from 14 to 20 August.
That Open Arms wanted to arrive in Italy at all costs was evident from the start. In the 110-page memorandum filed in the documents, the defense focused on some essential aspects starting with the ordinance of 1 August 2019 banning entry into Italian waters signed by the Ministers of the Interior, Defense and Transport as required by the decree security bis, as proof of a collegiate decision of the government and therefore, as such, cannot be questioned by the judiciary. In the memorandum it is underlined that the provision of the Lazio TAR of 14 August did not require the disembarkation of all migrants, but partially suspended the effectiveness of the ordinance of 1 August to allow for helping those who needed it. There is also an attack on the then Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, whose letter of August 15 to Salvini is defined as “manifestly pretext” given that the government crisis had begun, pretext because at that moment the Open Arms was in international waters and therefore under the responsibility of the Spain of which it flew. Salvini, however, deferred to Conte’s decisions despite being in total disagreement, decisions that led to the disembarkation of the minors on August 17th while the others landed on the 20th after the seizure of the ship decided by the Agrigento prosecutor, Luigi Patronaggio.A PROVOCATIVE ATTITUDE
The synthesis of the defense lies in the provocative attitude of the Open Arms, also in violation of numerous rules and with the refusal of alternatives other than Italy, in the reconstruction of the Court of Ministers considered wrong in several points and in the unquestionable action politics of a government. There is also some contradiction. In the defense memorandum there is no mention of the second order of prohibition of entry signed by Salvini in the late evening of August 14 and not signed by the ministers Elisabetta Trenta and Danilo Toninelli as they had done on August 1: therefore the former Minister of the Interior tries until the end of continuing on his path even when there was no longer an agreement in the government. On the other hand, however, some posts published by Toninelli on Facebook from 18 to 20 August are reported in the memory,COMMENTS
In recent days , Enrico Letta had himself photographed with the Open Arms sweatshirt next to the founder of the NGO, Oscar Camps. A very challenging and somewhat provocative photo that the secretary of the Democratic Party had accompanied with a comment on a “nice exchange of ideas”. Salvini declined to comment by saying he wanted to deal with reopening and vaccines, for the rest he bears “Christianly” and worries about his children. To the Open Arms, happy for “all the people we have rescued”, and to left-wing politicians who attacked Salvini, a chorus of support for the center-right has been added, starting with Giorgia Meloni who sent the “total solidarity “after the” shocking “decision of the judge.
