President Sergio Mattarella told Elon Musk on Wednesday not to interfere in Italian affairs after the US billionaire said Rome judges blocking a government anti-immigration initiative should be sent packing. <\/p>\n
The highly unusual statement from the Italian head of state came against a backdrop of growing tension between the ruling coalition and the judiciary that has attracted the attention of Musk, who is a friend of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese judges need to go,\u201d Musk wrote on X on Tuesday, referring to a panel of Rome magistrates who had questioned the legality of a government initiative to detain asylum-seekers in Albania \u2013 a measure aimed at discouraging irregular immigration. <\/p>\n
The magistrates\u2019 move meant a small group of migrants just taken to Albania had to be brought to Italy, casting doubt on Meloni\u2019s flagship plan to crack down on irregular arrivals. <\/p>\n
Musk\u2019s comment was splashed on the front pages of Italian newspapers on Wednesday and came just hours before US President-elect Donald Trump had given him a leading role aimed at creating more efficient government in the United States. <\/p>\n
\u201cItaly is a great democratic country and \u2026 knows how to take care of itself,\u201d said Mattarella, who consistently tops opinion polls as the most respected leader in Italy. <\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone, particularly if, as announced, he is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot give himself the task of issuing it instructions.\u201d <\/p>\n
In response, Musk issued a statement via his Italian representative Andrea Stroppa, expressing \u201crespect\u201d for Mattarella and Italy\u2019s constitution, but reaffirming his intention to \u201ccontinue to freely express his opinions.\u201d <\/p>\n
Saying he conveyed the same message in a \u201cfriendly\u201d call with Meloni, Musk also expressed hope that Italian-US relations would grow even stronger and said he looked forward to meeting Mattarella soon. <\/p>\n
While Meloni did not comment on the US entrepreneur\u2019s social media comments, deputy premier and hard-right party leader Matteo Salvini welcomed them. \u201c@elonmusk is right,\u201d he said on X on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
The controversy revolves around an October ruling by the EU\u2019s Court of Justice (ECJ), which said that no nation of origin could be considered safe if even just a part of it was dangerous \u2013 a position that called into question Italy\u2019s policy of trying to repatriate visa-less migrants to their home countries. <\/p>\n
The ECJ ruling referred to a Czech case but holds for the whole European Union and landed as Meloni\u2019s government was building detention centers in Albania tasked with processing migrants picked up at sea as they tried to reach Italy. <\/p>\n
The centers are meant to fast-track repatriations, but the Rome court said this should not happen before the ECJ provides further clarification. <\/p>\n
As a result the two small groups of migrants taken to Albania in the past three weeks have been almost immediately transferred to Italy, leaving the scheme in legal limbo. <\/p>\n
Italy\u2019s supreme court is due to review the legality of the Rome court move in early December, but the final word is likely to remain with the ECJ, legal experts say. <\/p>\n
An ECJ official said on Wednesday the Luxembourg-based court could take months, or at least weeks, to clarify whether Italy can legally repatriate migrants to countries that it deems safe, such as Egypt, Tunisia and Bangladesh. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
President Sergio Mattarella told Elon Musk on Wednesday not to interfere in Italian affairs after the US billionaire said Rome judges blocking a government anti-immigration initiative should be sent packing. The highly unusual statement from the Italian head of state came against a backdrop of growing tension between the ruling coalition and the judiciary that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/investingsstrategist.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}