“It wasn't a kidnapping”

«Yay!». The celebration, repressed with difficulty, comes from the back of the bunker room of the Pagliarelli prison in Palermo, crowded with friends and colleagues from the Northern League. Him, Matteo Salviniholds Giulia Bongiorno, his lawyer, in a hug; a few rows further back Francesca Verdini, companion of the Northern League leader, starts to cry. The trial against the deputy prime minister and number one of the Northern League, for which the prosecutors had requested six years in prison, ends in nothing for the prosecution. «Acquitted because the fact does not exist», the president of the college Roberto Murgia announced in the evening in a packed courtroom, after a deliberation that lasted more than eight hours. And it is an outcome that could not have smiled more on the Northern League Captain, accused of kidnapping and refusal of official documents for having prevented the disembarkation of 147 migrants from the ship of the NGO Open Arms, when he was Minister of the Interior of the Conte government I, in the summer of 2019. Because the sentence reports “the fullest acquittal formula”, exults the lawyer and senator Bongiorno, in an improvised press conference outside the court door while rain and wind they lash Palermo. A verdict that leaves no room for “ifs or buts” on the conduct of the then number two (together with Luigi Di Maio) of the yellow-green executive: “Not a sentence against migrants, but against those who exploit them”. Preventing the landing, in short, was a legitimate political choice, not the refusal of a duty.

Salvini acquitted in the Open Arms trial, Meloni: «Great satisfaction, unfounded and surreal accusations». Nordio: honor to these courageous magistrates

Salvini shakes hands, raises his fists in a sign of victory, hugs one after the other the big leaguers who come within range: the Minister of Education Valditara, the undersecretaries Morelli and Durigon, parliamentarians and managers who rushed to Palermo to support him . «Justice has been done», they celebrate: «Today is a happy day for democracy». He receives messages of support from Meloni and Tajani, with whom he speaks by phone immediately afterwards. And then that of Elon Musk, who hopes he will return to the Ministry of the Interior (“Let's hope”): “Well done!”, writes the owner of Tesla on X. “I'm happy: after three years the League has won, Italy has won . Defending the homeland is not a crime but a right”, the first immediate reaction to the microphones. «Now I will move forward even more determined than before». The Prime Minister's post follows suit, along the same lines: «Defending the Italian borders can never be a crime», tweets Meloni. «The acquittal is great news. A judgment that demonstrates how unfounded and surreal the accusations made against him were. Hurray!». Here is also the Foreign Minister and leader of Forza Italia: «There is a judge in Palermo! Come on Matteo, let's move forward together.” Even the government partners are breathing a sigh of relief: the Minister of Transport is more stable, having averted the risk that a conviction would trigger calls for his resignation (or, worse, trigger his disqualification from being a parliamentarian).

Not everyone in the secretary's entourage believed it. And not just for good luck. That the outcome was anything but a foregone conclusion can be seen from the faces, sighs and worries that bounce around the large trial courtroom on the outskirts of Palermo throughout the day. Salvini arrives at 9.30 sharp escorted by his lawyer, the very trusted president of the Senate Justice Committee. And he tweets the photo of the rainbow that appears in the morning sky above the second largest prison in Italy. A good omen sign? Maybe. Then he makes sure to keep a chair free for his partner, Francesca Verdini, who however will only arrive several hours later, in the late afternoon: “Will you save me a seat for Franci?”. In the chamber, waiting for the deputy prime minister, a plethora of journalists from half of Europe. Two rows behind Salvini sits Oscar Camps, founder of the NGO who presented the complaint to the prosecutor's office for kidnapping. And that – this is the defense thesis reiterated yesterday in court by Bongiorno – he could have let the migrants off at any time: «It would have been enough to sign a form. Or he could take them to Spain. But no: they wanted to land them in Italy.” To put the government and its line of closed ports in difficulty, is the belief. Now Open Arms is evaluating the appeal, but first “let's wait for the reasons”.

THE PUBLIC

Meanwhile, the audience is growing in number. In addition to Valditara (“here due to proximity to a friend”) and the undersecretaries Morelli and Durigon, the former senator Armando Siri and the Palermitan lieutenant of the Carroccio Nino Germanà are also sighted. And then the patron of Papeete Beach, Massimo Casanova, former MEP but above all a personal friend of the leader (with whom he shared the hotel in Mondello). «Salvini? He is bitter, like everyone here”, admits Casanova. And he says that “many people, even on the left, stop me and tell me that Salvini shouldn't be on trial, if anything the entire Conte government.” A thesis that is popular among Northern League supporters, before the verdict. The former Prime Minister Cinquestelle, however, heard as a witness in the trial, commented as follows in the evening: “We take note of the sentence, the judges are always an autonomous power.” Same line as Elly Schlein, Pd: «Our criticism is political, sentences are respected. It's the right that doesn't do it.”