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Opinion: Hungarian Solidarity with Persecuted Matteo Salvini

Dániel Deme 2024.12.19.

“Lawfare” is in full swing in Italy as the leader of the national-conservative party Lega, Matteo Salvini, stands trial for allegedly “kidnapping” a boat full of illegal migrants in 2019. Hungarian government politicians, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán among them, have shown solidarity with the embattled politician who was in the crosshairs of far-left prosecutors, activists and NGO’s ever since he stood up to people-smugglers and their well-funded European helpers. But is this merely a cynical comradery among the so called European “far-right”, or is it going to be a turning point in the fight against uncontrolled mass-migration?

Italy’s deputy PM Matteo Salvini is currently on trial for not allowing an NGO boat loaded with illegal migrants to dock in a port on the Island of Lampedusa. Due to this incident he is now charged with “kidnapping” and is facing a six year jail term in case he is found guilty. Salvini has argued that he was only doing what he is required by the law, that is, protecting Italy’s borders from illegal entrants. His lawyer, Giulia Bongiorno, pointed out with regards to the migrant boat operated by a far-left Spanish charity Open Arms that “there is no right to… choose how, when and where to disembark migrants… Open Arms had countless opportunities to land migrants (elsewhere, such as in its home port in Spain, ed. note) but refused countless, countless, countless times”, she said.

A year earlier an Open Arms’ rescue ship was seized by authorities, and their operators were reportedly accused “of criminal conspiracy and aiding illegal immigration”. Yet now it is their nemesis, the former Italian interior minister, who is standing trial for his efforts to stop illegal migrants and his fight against migrant-smuggling gangs. All this, as German migrant boat captain, Carola Rackete, who has rammed an Italian coast guard boat with her migrant-laden vessel, has now been rewarded with a seat in the European Parliament. Just like the Italian Antifa extremist, Ilaria Salis, who was in detention in a Hungarian jail standing trial for violently attacking innocent people on the streets of Budapest, before she walked out of her cell straight to her lavish EP offices in Strasbourg.

On Thursday though, Hungarian and other members of the Patriots for Europe EP bloc accompanied by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán have made a public show of solidarity with Salvini, holding up his portrait printed on a t-shirt with an inscription reading : “guilty of defending Italy”. The Hungarian Prime Minister called for “Justice for Matteo Salvini” on his official X account. Kinga Gál, MEP for the governing Fidesz also joined the action writing “we stand with Matteo Salvini. At the Patriots for Europe Leaders Summit, we expressed our full solidarity with Matteo Salvini. Defending the EU’s borders is an obligation, not a crime.”

Salvini thanked for the show of solidarity in his own post writing “Thank you very much for the support, knowing that we have allies all over Europe united for this battle makes me even more proud. Tomorrow I will go to Palermo with my head held high, without fear, because defending borders is a duty, not a crime.”

Others, like Danish MEP Anders Vistisen went further saying “it can never be a crime to defend your homeland against massive Muslim immigration. Matteo Salvini faces jail time for doing what any responsible leader should: defending his country’s borders against illegal migration. Protecting your homeland shouldn’t lead to punishment – it should lead to celebration. Salvini stood up when many other politicians bowed to the EU’s failed migration policy. Now the elite are trying to make an example of him because he refuses to let Italy become Europe’s migrant camp. The Danish People’s Party stand behind Matteo Salvini and anyone who dares to take the fight against mass immigration and the politically correct elite!”

Other anti-immigration European leaders, typically belonging to national conservative parties that are also members of the Patriots for Europe alliance, have also been targeted by prosecutions that many suspect have a political-ideological motif. Marine le Pen in France is facing trial for alleged “embezzlement”, while Austrian Herbert Kickl is awaiting prosecution being accused of perjury. Similar cases can be found in several other countries from Poland or the United Kingdom through to the United States. In Germany lawmakers have proposed banning the only anti-immigration party in the country all together.
The Hungarian and wider solidarity emerging around the embattled Italian politician though is a sign that multiple stakeholders in current European politics regard these legal cases as ones motivated by political bias. They claim that European and Trans-Atlantic pro-migration forces are actively bringing these cases against public figures in order to intimidate those critical towards the EU’s migration policies, and remove those, against whom such intimidation tactics have proved ineffective.
The crucial conclusion that seems to be emerging from these battles is that we are not dealing here with a spontaneous historical and demographic phenomenon, where large masses of people were moving from conflict-, and poverty-stricken parts of the world into more prosperous ones. Salvini’s and other cases prove without any reasonable doubt that one is dealing here with an organized process, where certain actors are circumventing or distorting national legislation in order to import the largest possible number of illegal migrants into Western societies. When people are prosecuted and silenced for standing up to a blatant violation of their national sovereignty, vilified for speaking up against the crime, social tensions and religious fundamentalism that mass migration has brought to Europe, this is an irrefutable sign that we are dealing here with an organized and managed process instead of a spontaneous one.
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It is possible that this case could end up in court, said the EP group's Vice President Kinga Gál.Continue reading

Featured Image: X Matteo Salvini

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