Minister of the Interior of a prison: as long as it is a prison. They will have to wait longer. They have tried many things to throw Salvini in, even if there has been a leap in quality since he sat at the Interior Ministry. And who knows, maybe yesterday, during the interminable afternoon spent waiting for the sentence in Pagliarelli's bunker courtroom, he mentally rewound the film.
He was still immature when he received 30 days on probation for a story of throwing eggs at the then Prime Minister Massimo D'Alema: contempt of a public official. Then in 2009 he was filmed on video, in Pontida, where he was dragged into a chorus by AC Milan fans against the Neapolitans: Salvini then officially apologised, saying that it was indeed a stadium chant, but two serious Neapolitans didn't want to know about it and they reported him: 5700 euros in compensation. And up to this point we're at the point of nonsense: otherwise we wouldn't know how to define the student spirit of July 2016, when a parliamentarian from the Left Ecology and Freedom (conditional) denounced him for nothing less than “contempt against the constitutional institutions” after another League party (in the Cremona area) they showed him an inflatable doll and he said that it looked like Laura Boldrini, then president of the Chamber; the Keeper of the Seals Alfonso Bonafede granted authorization to proceed and it is not clear how it ended. Another accusation of contempt for the institutions in 2016, when Salvini defined our justice as “crap”, and another concession from the friendly Keeper of the Seals Bonafede, after which among a thousand impediments (Covid, lunches with Mattarella) in March 2021 here was the acquittal due to the tenuousness of the fact . But we said it: he wasn't at the Interior, not yet. And not that there was any lack of foolishness (lightness, let's say) even as a minister: accused of having abused state flights, he was acquitted by the Rome Prosecutor's Office and the Court of Auditors.
Then the minister started being a minister: ready, go. In September 2018 the Palermo Prosecutor's Office investigated him for kidnapping (not nothing) for having prevented the disembarkation of migrants from the Diciotti ship the previous summer. At the beginning of November the Prosecutor's Office asked for the case to be dismissed and, almost, they gave the trial to him, to the judge, but never mind, in January 2019 the Court of Ministers asked the Senate for authorization to proceed. Salvini, in a public letter, declares that he acted in the interests of the country and asks that the authorization be denied. The Grillini know how to be flexible, and quite a lot: the Senate satisfied him in March, 237 in favor and 61 against.
It's all about trying again. A few months later, in July, Legambiente denounced it in Syracuse for the Gregoretti ship which had been prohibited from disembarking 116 migrants: not before other European countries had made a commitment to welcome them. “They are all good and good to other people's ports,” he says, “but we are not the refugee camp of Europe, I don't know if it will cost me another attempted trial.” But of course it will cost you. In December the prosecutor's office asked for it to be dismissed, but there was a key step: Salvini meanwhile broke with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte and left the Government (with the League). And look: the Court of Ministers asks for authorization to proceed and the Senate votes in favour. Never mind, in May 2021 the Catania GUP acquitted Salvini with a ruling of no place to proceed: no trial.
It's all about trying again. In August 2019, a magistrate from Agrigento entered directly on board another ship, the Open Arms, outside Lampedusa and ordered the seizure, docking and evacuation of the migrants. That day they didn't open a case, they opened three against unknown persons: aiding and abetting illegal immigration, kidnapping, failure to perform official documents. Not so unknown: after three months and two files end up at the Court of Ministers for proceedings against Salvini.
Conte is still in government and look, the Senate votes in favor of the authorization. Indictment accepted (April 2021) and proceed with the trial. Last September the prosecutor asked for 6 years. Yesterday the same prosecutor, before dinner, realized that he had wasted time, money and energy: exactly like the country.
