Kidnapping is a very serious crime, regardless of the outcome of former Minister Salvini’s judicial affair before the Court of Palermo in the Open Arms case.
Whether the decisions were his alone or in conjunction with other ministers does not change his responsibilities. Furthermore, our Constitution does not provide for the collective responsibility of the government for decisions made by a minister within the scope of his prerogatives.
Even if it were a matter of collective responsibility, the law does not say that in this case it should be divided between those who committed a crime.
Salvini’s insistence on this point is only an attempt to shift the attention of the public.
The indictment requested by the prosecutor Lo Voi against Salvini marks the beginning of a long judicial process.
However, the crime of kidnapping was committed with such blatant propaganda, absolved several times in all locations, including the bunker court in Palermo. Regardless of the court decision, the political responsibility is clear. In fact, the former propaganda minister never denied having kidnapped 147 people, including a group of minors, but he claimed he did it (not alone) to defend our borders.
Those people, who came ashore after six days thanks to the intervention of the court of Agrigento, unarmed and with the only probable intention of seeking asylum, did not represent a threat to our country in any way. As highlighted by the associations that have formed civil parties (including Arci Sicilia), the decision to block the Open Arms ship without indicating, as required by Italian law and international conventions, the nearest safe port (Place of Safety) and seizing a group of men, women and minors is a crime worsened by the fact that it was committed by a minister who abused his powers.
The fact that the seizure may have been ordered to garner other EU governments responses to the request for cooperation only further aggravates the circumstances. The request could in fact be carried out after having secured the shipwrecked, as is usually the procedure.
In reality, what occupied the Northern League leader as minister, and continues to occupy him, is chasing consensus, fueling fears and racism. He is doing it these days, raising his voice against the ius soli proposed by Letta, secretary of that Democratic Party who, with Renzi, did not have the political courage to vote in the Senate a reform already approved in the House. The measure would have opened a new era of rights for persons of foreign origin.
Our hope is that this ushers in a new era, in which it is the parties and politics of the left that blazes the trail for just law and equality to address the problems of society, and not the courts of the Republic. In the meantime, organized subjects, associations, trade unions and movements must continue to carry on social disputes and civil battles by promoting mobilizations, which are essential even in this difficult period marked by the pandemic.
