The president of Italy, Sergio Mattarella, has told Elon Musk to get lost, reacting with evident anger on Wednesday after Musk jumped into a highly controversial domestic debate about the far-right government’s migrant policies.
Musk tweeted an attack on Italian judges on Monday, saying that they were wrong to challenge Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s plans to spend an estimated $850 million to ship migrants from Italy to newly built detention camps in neighbouring Albania. “These judges need to go,” declared Musk, in a comment on X.
Since Italian right-wing politicians have also been attacking the judges, Musk’s intervention was like rubbing salt in the wound.
The normally mild-mannered President Mattarella, who is 83 years old and serves as Italy’s widely respected head of state, issued an unusually sharp rebuke of Musk. Mattarella didn’t cite Musk by name but in an unusually angry statement he made clear on Wednesday that he was referring to him. Italy’s head of state demanded respect for the country’s sovereignty, especially from what he called soon-to-be US government officials.
“Italy is a great democratic country and knows how to take care of itself,” said Mattarella. “Anyone, particularly if, as announced, he is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot give himself the task of issuing it instructions.”
Mattarella was referring to the fact that US President-elect Donald Trump has named Musk as the co-head of a so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, which aims to make drastic changes to the federal government.
There was no immediate comment from Musk on X, but just as Mattarella’s statement landed, he returned to the migration issue, writing, “Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?” This riposte from Musk only increased the anger and resentment at the tech billionaire among ordinary Italians.
Italy’s supreme court is due to review the legality of the judge’s ruling in early December, but the final word is likely to remain with the European Court of Justice. An ECJ official said on Wednesday that the Luxembourg-based court could take months to clarify the matter.
While opposition politicians have blasted Musk for wading into domestic Italian politics and trying to suggest that members of the Italian judiciary be fired, Trump’s biggest fan in Italy, the anti-immigration Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, said “Elon Musk is right.” The centre-left Democratic party branded the comment as an “unacceptable interference” in Italian affairs.
Ernesto Carbone, who sits on the High Council of the Judiciary, condemned Musk as one of the “new oligarchs” aspiring to “control world politics and who are a danger to democracy.”
Italy’s National Magistrates’ Association likewise condemned the billionaire’s intervention. “It is no longer the independence of the judiciary that is in question here, but the sovereignty of the Italian state,” said the association’s vice-president Alessandra Maddalena.
Carlo Calenda, a centre-right political leader, praised President Mattarella’s criticism of Musk, saying it was necessary to “safeguard the dignity of our nation.” Calenda has expressed concerns that American democracy under Trump could become what he called “an oligarchy.”
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party, finds herself in an embarrassing position: She has bragged that she is a close friend of Musk’s and has splashed photographs of the two of them across Italian social media. Last month Meloni and Musk were all smiles as they huddled together at an Atlantic Council black tie dinner in New York, where Musk awarded the Italian premier with the Global Citizen Award.
Many Italians believe that Meloni’s so-called friendship with Musk will protect Italy from any new tariffs that President-elect Trump plans to launch against Europe.
Meloni herself has remained very silent in recent days; she is believed to be in agreement with Musk but obviously she cannot simply fire members of the judiciary. But on Wednesday, after the President of Italy’s rebuke to Musk, Meloni issued a terse statement. “We always listen with great respect to the words of the president of the Republic,” said Meloni. She did not, however, say that she agreed with Mattarella.
Last week Musk triggered a firestorm of criticism in Germany when he labeled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “fool” right after his three-party coalition imploded. Responding to a post referring to Scholz’s government collapsing, Musk said, in German, “Olaf ist ein Narr.” Translated, it means, “Olaf is a fool.”
Erizia Rubyjeana
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