Leader of the populist League party, Senator Matteo Salvini wore a “Trump 2020” facemask inside the Italian parliament before he delivered a speech to his colleagues in the Senate on Sunday.
Prior to his remarks, Salvini — Italy’s most popular politician — took to Twitter, writing, “Greetings from the Senate. In a half hour I will give my speech, which will also be live on Twitter. Good evening, friends.”
Un saluto dal #Senato, tra una mezz’ora il mio intervento, in diretta anche su Twitter. Buona serata Amici. pic.twitter.com/vx6aS9EblO
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) October 13, 2020
Salvini, while giving his speech on the floor of parliament, expressed regret that the currently ruling leftist-establishment coalition government has “extended the state of emergency on COVID-19”, but which so far has failed to limit the high number of deaths in the northwest regions of Italy.
“It’s surreal,” the former interior minister said. “[French President Emmanuel] Macron also went there, [but] nothing from [Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe] Conte. Zero money allocated, zero emergency.”
After finishing his speech, Salvini again took to Twitter to expand on the statements he gave in parliament. “Help other countries? Okay, but we impose readmission clauses. We give you the money, but you take back all the illegal immigrants who are arriving in Italy,” the populist Senator wrote.
#Salvini: aiutare altri Paesi? Bene, ma imponiamo clausole di riammissione: noi ti diamo i soldi, ma tu ti riprendi tutti i clandestini che stanno arrivando illegalmente in Italia. #Senato pic.twitter.com/aGzFk34Lj7
— Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) October 13, 2020
Salvini has been a vocal supporter of Trump in the past, saying in 2019 that when he returns to power, he wants an alliance with Trump and other conservative leaders from countries like Israel and Brazil. He also backed Trump’s bid for president in 2016.
Earlier this month, Senator Salvini appeared in court over an incident which occurred last summer where he — as acting interior minister and deputy prime minister at the time — prevented a vessel filled with illegal migrants from docking at an Italian port on the island of Lampedusa, as Remix News has previously reported.
Salvini stands accused of “abuse of power and kidnapping” for refusing to give the Gregoretti, a coastguard ship that had been carrying 116 illegal migrants, permission to dock at a port in Lampedusa, in the Sicilian province, in July of 2019.
After the hearing, Salvini spoke with members of the press, saying that not only does he not regret blocking the illegal migrants from being offloaded, but that he plans to do exactly the same thing when he reassumes his former role as interior minister.
“It is not that I would do it again – I am going to do it again,” the populist leader said.
In September, Salvini was physically attacked by a 30-year-old Congolese migrant during a campaign event in the commune of Pontassieve, just ahead of regional elections in Tuscany – a historically left-wing bastion, Italian newspaper Il Giornale reported.
The attacker reportedly tore at the populist senator’s shirt and rosary.
Last week, Silvia Sardone, a 37-year-old female MEP for Salvini’s League Party, received several rape and death threats, many of which are said to have come from migrants, after she opposed the construction of a mosque in the Via Novara area of Milan.
