Former Italian Minister On Trial for Blocking Migrant Boat

FORMER ITALIAN Interior Minister Matteo Salvini has appeared in court charged with abuse of power for blocking a migrant ship from entering Italy in 2019.

Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy’s right-wing Lega Nord party, appeared before a court in the Sicilian city of Palermo charged with abuse of power. In 2019, when he was the country’s Interior Minister in a coalition government, he blocked the entry of a migrant ship from docking at the Meditteranean island of Lampedusa.

The boat held 100 migrants that had been rescued at sea, and conditions were deteriorating on board. From Rome, Salvini blocked the ship from entering Italy in a move critics say was an effort to bolster his populist support among the country’s conservative anti-migrant voters. After a local prosecutor intervened, the migrants were finally able to land safely on Italy’s shores.

“I am totally at ease and proud of what I did,” Salvini told Italian media in Palermo following the private hearing. “I am sorry only for the cost of the procedure that is being borne by Italian taxpayers and the magistrate’s time that I have wasted.”

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