Italian President Sergio Mattarella told Elon Musk not to interfere in Italian affairs, after the billionaire said Rome judges who blocked a government anti-immigration initiative should be fired.
The highly unusual statement by the Italian head of state came against a backdrop of growing tension between the ruling coalition and the judiciary, which attracted the attention of Musk, who is a friend of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni.
“These judges need to go away,” Musk wrote on X on Tuesday, referring to a panel of Rome magistrates who questioned the legality of a government initiative to detain asylum seekers in Albania — a move designed to discourage irregular immigration.
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The magistrates’ decision meant that a small group of migrants who had just been taken to Albania had to be brought to Italy, casting doubt on Meloni’s main plan to crack down on irregular arrivals.
Musk’s comment was splashed across the front pages of Italian newspapers on Wednesday and came just hours before US President-elect Donald Trump gave him a leadership role with the aim of creating a more efficient government in the United States. .
“Italy is a great democratic country and… knows how to take care of itself,” said Mattarella, who consistently leads opinion polls as Italy’s most respected leader.
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“Anyone, especially if, as announced, they are about to assume an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot be tasked with issuing instructions.”
There was no immediate comment from Musk, but as soon as Mattarella’s statement was released, he returned to the issue of migration, writing: “Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or is it an unelected autocracy that makes the decisions?”
Although Meloni did not comment on Musk’s posts, Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini welcomed his intervention. “@elonmusk is right,” he said on X on Tuesday.
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The controversy centers on an October ruling by the EU Court of Justice (ECJ), which stated that no nation of origin could be considered safe if part of it was dangerous — a position that called into question Italy’s policy of trying to repatriate migrants visa-free to their home countries.
The ECJ ruling concerned a Czech case, but is valid across the European Union, and came at a time when Meloni’s government was building detention centers in Albania, tasked with processing migrants caught at sea as they tried to reach Italy.
The centers’ aim is to speed up repatriations, but the Rome court said this should not happen before the ECJ provides further clarification.
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