He proudly claims that during his ministry no migrants died at sea and that landings decreased by 90%. He reiterates that he has only defended national security. He repeats that his line on immigration was shared by the entire government. At least as long as the majority held.
Matteo Salvini, on trial in Palermo for kidnapping and refusal of official acts for denying disembarkation to 147 migrants rescued at sea in August 2019 by the ship of the Spanish NGO Open Arms, is in the dock.
The boat remained for days in front of Lampedusa with the refugees on board and the situation, in total stalemate, was unblocked only by the disembarkation order given by the Agrigento Public Prosecutor's Office.
Video of the Open Arms trial, the arrivals in the bunker courtroom in Palermo
"The government's policy was to combat human trafficking and to involve Europe," Salvini said during very long spontaneous statements made before the court of Palermo, which for these statements also received the support of the leader of the French extreme right Marine Le Pen.
The leader of the League, who at the time of the events headed the Interior Ministry, has returned several times to the total agreement on the part of the majority on the management of migratory phenomena "which provided - he said - for the involvement of the European institutions and which began with the affair of the Aquarius ship and continued with the Diciotti in the agreement of all the government colleagues". In short, all the choices made were shared by the executive. Until, after the motion of no confidence presented by the League against the first Conte government, the fate of the government was sealed and the M5S changed its attitude. "Conte had so far shared all the choices," he explained, reiterating that the authorization to proceed against him voted by the Movement depended only on political reasons. "In all the hundreds of previous episodes," Salvini explained, "we spoke on the phone about the various issues. With Open Arms, on the other hand, Conte began a correspondence. On August 14, for the first time, he wrote to me referring to the minors on board and inviting me to make the consequent decisions."
To the deputy prosecutor Marzia Sabella who asked the defendant what was the basis of the government's fears for public safety, often invoked by Salvini, in the Open Arms case, the minister replied: "We had no information on the presence of terrorists on board, but I remember that we had a suspicion linked to illegal immigration because on the captain of the ship, Marc Creus, a request for indictment was pending."
"When did you learn that Creus was being investigated for aiding and abetting illegal immigration?" Assistant Prosecutor Marzia Sabella asked Salvini.
"I imagine that the chief of staff Piantedosi told me this before his request to enter national waters," replied Salvini, who then, however, maintained that the captain's status as a suspect was not an obstacle to the release of the safe port to the Open Arms. Subsequently, however, Creus was declared that there was no need to proceed.
The Northern League leader, answering the questions of the civil parties, also claimed that he had never received communications on health emergencies on board. "There were migrants who threw themselves into the sea in exasperation," the president of the court told him. "It was not the first time this had happened," replied the minister, who has repeatedly maintained that the assignment of the safe port to the NGO ship would have been given anyway, regardless of the move by the Agrigento prosecutor's office, because an agreement had been reached in Europe on the redistribution of refugees.
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