FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Clash in the Rome court between the writer Roberto Saviano and the minister Matteo Salvini. The author of "Gomorrah" has been sued in court for defamation by Salvini.
Saviano had called the League leader "minister of the underworld" after some statements by the deputy prime minister about the bodyguard assigned to the writer.
"I shook Saviano's hands in the courtroom and he told me 'shame on you'. He is rude, but it is certainly not a crime," Salvini said at the close of the hearing.
Saviano attacks Salvini
After three postponements, Salvini appeared in court. A presence that Saviano had been waiting for. "After years on the run, Salvini will appear in court, or at least that's what it seems," he commented in a post.
"I found the comment 'Salvini minister of the underworld' offensive, as a minister, as a citizen, as a party leader," said the Deputy Prime Minister in response to the prosecutor's questions.
"I am used to political criticism, but expressions like 'friend of the 'Ndrangheta' and 'minister of the underworld' are not political: they meant to refer to a closeness to the 'Ndrangheta' that terrifies me," added the head of the League.
Salvini reiterated that he intends to "continue and not withdraw the lawsuit." "My priority," he declared in court, "has been the fight against the mafia. I have reread the posts since 7 years have passed. At that time I was Minister of the Interior for a few days and it was the bodies of the ministry and I who came across these posts. Posts that were widely distributed. Serious and unfounded expressions," Salvini said.
Saviano is on trial for several posts published in the summer of 2018 when Salvini was interior minister and there were strong controversies over the management of the migrant issue. After several interventions by Saviano, in a statement made to Agorà, the deputy prime minister spoke about the bodyguards who served to protect the writer: "the competent institutions will assess whether he poses a risk, because it seems to me that he spends a lot of time abroad. They will assess how Italians' money is spent".
In response, in a post, the journalist called Salvini "the minister of the underworld", citing an essay by Gaetano Salvemini on the policies of Giovanni Giolitti. In this exchange, the minister reminded the court that "like the defendant, I have lived under escort for years, I do not consider it a privilege. As a minister, I have done nothing harmful against Saviano".
Saviano: "Salvini doesn't think when he speaks"
"I was shocked when I saw the absolute lack of preparation with the things he had written. He had written that he would remove my protection as soon as he came to government," Saviano comments on his Instagram page, after leaving the court. The journalist then examines what the minister said before the prosecutor: "in the courtroom he said that it was just a political assessment (his speech about removing the writer's escort), but he would not take such a decision. Everything seems very fragile and disorderly to me. One thing is striking, Salvini does not think when he speaks. When asked why he had made those statements, when in Calabria he said that the problem was immigration and not the 'ndrangheta, he stuttered." /Adapted from Today's Pamphlet/
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