Analysis
Elon Musk attacks Italian judges over Albanian detention centers
Salvini is jealous of the relationship Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is developing with the richest man in the world. Meanwhile, the Shengjin and Gjader centers are once again empty.
“These judges must go,” wrote Elon Musk in a tweet, one among the hundreds he posts compulsively every day: a provocation that turned the focus once again on the controversy over Italy’s migrant detention centers in Albania and the judges that have stopped migrants from being moved there.
Vice-Prime Minister Matteo Salvini seized the opportunity to say that he thought the owner of X “is right” and try to bring attention to the court case that really bothers him: namely, his own before the Palermo Court, in which he is on trial for failing to perform official duties and kidnapping.
Musk also stuck his nose in Salvini’s trial in the past, tweeting out that he thought the prosecutors who sought the Lega leader’s conviction should themselves be put in jail. Now, however, it seems Salvini is jealous of the relationship Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is developing with the richest man in the world, who will be a guest at this year’s edition of the Atreju right-wing convention. Right after the U.S. elections, the FdI leader posted a photo in which he hugged her “friend.”
The opposition certainly didn’t welcome Musk’s intervention, commenting sarcastically about “sovereignists who don’t protect the national borders” (Nicola Fratoianni, AvS) and “the government that kneels before the billionaire” (Chiara Gribaudo, PD). ACLI and ARCI denounced the attack on democratic institutions, but the harshest retort came from the National Association of Magistrates: “We are baffled by the intervention of a very powerful foreign tycoon. This is no longer about the independence of the judiciary, this is about the sovereignty of the Italian state,” said Vice President Alessandra Maddalena.
Last week, Musk doubled down with more comments on the Albania case: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?” he tweeted, referring to the decisions of the judges. On Wednesday evening, Italian President Mattarella spoke out and strongly condemned Musk’s meddling, while not naming him directly: “Italy is a great democratic country and … knows how to take care of itself while respecting its Constitution … Anyone, particularly if, as announced, is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot attribute to himself the task of imparting prescriptions.”
Meanwhile, the seven asylum seekers, from Bangladesh and Egypt, who had been deported to Albania have arrived back in Brindisi and are being housed at the city's CARA reception center. The Shengjin and Gjader centers are once again empty – but the expenses to support them are still running. The Rome prefecture has issued a notice of expression of interest for their maintenance at €3.2 million a year. The confirmed price tag for the project is getting closer to €1 billion over five years.
At this point, it is still unclear what will become of the operation in the near future. The government has been silent so far. After preliminary referrals to the EU Court of Justice from the immigration section of the Court of Rome, it is clear that a third mission to transport migrants to Albania would end once again with their releasee. And at that point, the scope for measures by the Court of Auditors to redress fiscal damage would increase; two complaints are already pending.
Thus, the military vessel Libra could return to its usual duties – at least until the rulings of the higher courts. On Dec. 4, a hearing will be held at the Supreme Court on the appeals filed by the State Attorney's Office on behalf of the Interior Ministry and the Rome Police Chief against the lower court’s refusal to approve the move of 12 migrants to Albania on Oct. 18. The seven-page legal challenge revolves around the idea that the Roman judges misrepresented the ruling of their Luxembourg colleagues, namely by excluding from the list of “safe” countries only those where there are territorial exceptions, while saying nothing about exclusions of categories of people (a case that applies to Bangladesh, Egypt and Tunisia). Then, the government also argues the Roman court did not find that the migrants transferred across the Adriatic belonged to any of the persecuted groups listed in the ruling.
But the real showdown will play out before the EU Court. On Tuesday, Senate President Ignazio La Russa laid off the anti-judge attacks made by his political colleagues and said the referrals to the Luxembourg court were a good thing: “It may be the right forum to assess a controversial issue, while it would have been better for it not to arise at all, but a decisive say is needed.” It’s impossible to predict how this will turn out, although the arguments in the ECJ’s Oct. 5 ruling are explicit about the power and duty of the national courts to assess the actual safety of countries and also seem to justify exceptions for categories of people.
Most importantly, we need to understand when a ruling might come. The courts in Bologna, Palermo, and Rome have ordered a total of 11 referrals to the ECJ on the same issue. All these will likely be merged into one proceeding. All are requesting an urgent or, if not, an accelerated procedure. In the former case, a ruling would come within three months; in the latter, in six to eight months. If the ECJ denies these requests, however, it would be an ordinary court process, which could take up to two years.
Originally published at https://ilmanifesto.it/centri-in-albania-elon-musk-attacca-i-giudici-se-ne-vadano on 2024-11-13