The judge's words reach Matteo Salvini when evening has fallen on Palermo. And it's unusually cold for these latitudes. The deputy prime minister was acquitted in the Open Arms trial with the fullest formula. The one that says “because the fact does not exist”. The one that makes the accused breathe a sigh of relief, his friends applaud, and those around him cry with joy. And it also reassures the defense. Because he knows that the sentence will be more difficult to overturn on appeal. For the Palermo magistrates – who reasoned for more than eight hours, closed in the recesses of the bunker room of the Pagliarelli prison – Salvini did not commit any kidnapping. And no official refusal. These were the two accusations that fell on the minister for having – at the time of the Conte I government – decided not to disembark, for 19 days, 147 migrants who were on board the NGO Open Arms' boat.
Salvini smiles when he hears the judge acquit him, surrounded by a good amount of affection. It was what he hoped for, but feared he wouldn't get. Think about enjoying the moment, the deputy prime minister. And, in the joy of a victory that came after a three-year process, he speaks of a victory for Italy and the League. However, he does not say what seems obvious. That this sentence highlights the primacy of politics. Even the one we like least, which can be considered cruel and at times even severely lacking in humanity. Because the judge, in acquitting Salvini, essentially says that the choice not to let the castaways disembark was not an arbitrary act, but a political one.
The Conte I government, made up of Lega and M5s, had the (shared) objective of stopping irregular immigration. To pursue it he had chosen the least acceptable method, because it had an impact on the lives of people who had already made a very difficult journey and who had suffered. But it was a political choice, they were not crimes. Today a judge says so. Years ago, however, Parliament had already effectively established this by denying authorization for the trial in the Diciotti case. According to the Palermo prosecutors, a case different from that of Open Arms in practice. But which, from a conceptual point of view, can be considered very similar. That time no one had been sent to trial. In the Open Arms case only Salvini went to trial, as if the then Prime Minister, Giuseppe Conte, and the then Minister of Infrastructure, Danilo Toninelli, were unaware of everything. Strangers to the facts.
Why was only Salvini sent to trial? Because all the blame for the failed landing had been placed on him. But also because the government had changed and the League was in the minority. The direct teases his opponents on the sidelines of the decision: “I'm curious to know what they will say when faced with a court ruling. I'm sorry for the millions of euros that the trial brought by the Pd and Cinque Stelle has cost the Italians”, he tells Five Minutes , by Bruno Vespa, at the end of a very long day in Palermo.
Exultation and relief in the center-right for Salvini's acquittal. With a relaunch on justice to be reformed
by Alfonso Raimo
Arriving punctually in the bunker room of the Pagliarelli prison, Salvini waited for the reading of the device together with his partner, Francesca Verdini, the lawyer Giulia Bongiorno, and some of his loyalists, such as Claudio Durigon, Massimo Casanova, Alessandro Morelli, Armando Siri, the minister Giuseppe Valditara. To ease the anxiety of waiting – “he is embittered, like everyone else”, Casanova told us early in the morning – he spent the hours of the council chamber around Palermo: a visit to the symbolic places of Palermo, a tour of the shopping center and , in the middle, a lunch with the leaders of the League. The menu is rich, based on baked anelletti with minced meat, panelle, croquettes, sfincione and, finally, desserts. The typical ones, with ricotta. All washed down with a little red wine, so as not to lose your serenity. Serenity that Salvini, despite the agitation confided by his team, also tried to instill in those who were waiting with him for the verdict. In the antechamber of the bunker courtroom, when the sentence was just a few minutes away, he joked with his friends about the flights to take, the last ones available between Palermo and Rome, and about the extent of a possible sentence. Next to him, always, “la Franci”. Very agitated, and visibly in love, Verdini reached the bunker classroom in the afternoon, with her partner, never leaving his side. She ran to hug him, in tears, when the judge read the dispositive. Around them the smiles of Salvini's friends and collaborators, some applause, a little bold in a courtroom, but sincere.
“There is no crime. It is not a sentence against migrants, it is a sentence against those who exploit them”, Giulia Bongiorno declared to reporters, on the sidelines of the sentence, to journalists crowded under the pouring rain. Next to her Salvini is beaming, the tone of his voice is stentorian: “The sentence absolves an idea of the country, entering Italy requires rules, limits, controls and those who use migrants to wage a political battle have lost and are returning to Spain with their hands in their pockets. The Palermo court said that we did our duty.”
The declarations of support arrive in dribs and drabs: “Great satisfaction with Salvini's acquittal in the Open Arms trial. A judgment that demonstrates how unfounded and surreal the accusations made against him were”, says Giorgia Meloni. And on Twitter he posts a photo of the two of them together at a rally. Great endorsement from Elon Musk, who congratulates him. And to those who ask him if he doesn't hope that Salvini will return to the Interior Ministry he replies: “Let's hope”. And who knows, maybe this might actually happen in the future. After all, the ruling seems to legitimize the centre-right's controversial policies on immigration. And it could pave the way for a new hard line from the Meloni government on the issue. Yet another.
