Giorgia Meloni maintains a special friendship with Elon Musk. When the Italian prime minister announced their separation on social networks, in October 2023, the tycoon responded with a “like.” Last September, Musk presented her with the Global Citizen 2024 award in New York at a lavish gala, saying that Meloni was a person “even more beautiful on the inside than on the outside,” and a photo of the two having dinner together was published in which they They looked with remarkable harmony. Given the sarcastic comments, the millionaire had to deny on his social network X: “I was with my mother. There is absolutely no romantic relationship with the premiere “Meloni.” That is why now some sudden and unusual attacks by the billionaire on the Italian judges, for stopping the plan to deport migrants to Albania, have left Meloni in a very uncomfortable situation. In fact, he has remained silent. And it had to be the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, who responded to Musk harshly.
Mattarella’s message, at noon on Wednesday, was this: “Italy is a great democratic country and I have to repeat, with the words used on October 7, 2022, that it knows how to take care of itself. “Everyone, particularly those who, as has been announced, are about to assume an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect sovereignty and cannot take on the task of issuing prescriptions.” The reference to October 7, 2022 is very intentional. This is the response that the head of state gave, after Meloni’s victory in the elections, to the French Minister of European Affairs, Laurence Boone, when he said that he would monitor respect for rights in Italy. As if to tell the prime minister that her friend’s words are just as inadmissible, and remind her that he defended her then.
Musk made a derogatory comment to the Italian judges on his social network at noon on Tuesday, after the Court of Rome rejected for the second time the retention of migrants in the Albanian internment camp: “These judges have to go.” After the first judicial setback to the deportations, last month, he had already simply said of the magistrates: “Fools.” And in September, after the prosecutor’s request for six years in prison for the Vice President of the Executive, Matteo Salvini, for preventing the disembarkation of migrants from the Spanish ship Open Arms in 2019, he tweeted: “It should be that crazy prosecutor who should go to prison six years.” Then there was criticism, but now he has aggressively attacked the judges, one of the powers of the State.
Sources from the presidency of the Italian Executive tried to relativize the magnate’s opinions, saying that he was a private citizen, free to say what he thinks. But the truth is that things have changed: just this Wednesday Trump appointed Musk as head of the Department of Government Efficiency of his new Government. However, Meloni has remained silent.
The opposition, and also the judiciary, cried out throughout Tuesday against what they considered an intolerable interference in Italian sovereignty. And he demanded a response from the Government. In vain, among other things because other atrocities from the Executive towards the judiciary have also been heard in recent weeks. “It is shameful that these homegrown sovereigntists have the line of an American millionaire dictated to them. They should defend the judges, this is also national sovereignty,” reproached the leader of the Democratic Party (PD), Elly Schlein. The president of the National Association of the Judiciary, Giuseppe Santalucia, went in the same direction: “An American magnate so influential in the new United States Administration speaks about internal affairs of the sovereign Italian State and meddles in the affairs of Italy (… ) without anyone from the Government considering responding to him.”
Hours passed and finally on Wednesday Mattarella intervened at noon. He precisely highlighted Musk’s status as the next political leader, contrary to what Meloni’s team was trying to convey, to show the seriousness of his statements. Then the prime minister took more than three hours to say simply one sentence: “We always listen to the president’s words with great respect.” But by then, Musk had made things even worse, with another tweet in which he questioned the rule of law in Italy and asked, again about the judges: “Do the Italian people live in a democracy or is it an autocracy?” not elected the one who makes the decisions?”
Trump and Salvini
The incident highlights Meloni’s usual difficulties in outlining his position in the face of outbursts from his less presentable friends, as happens in Europe with the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, and other leaders of the most radical far-right. But now is the first time that he has to confront Trump’s entourage after his electoral victory. And the truth is that, in principle, the best friend of the new president of the United States in the Italian Government is not her, but her partner Salvini. The leader of La Liga, who already wears a red tie, like Trump, was one of the first to celebrate his victory, as if he had won the lottery. Instead, Musk is Meloni’s connection to the Republican leader’s circle, with whom he is trying to reestablish good relations after getting closer to Joe Biden and not taking sides with Trump during the campaign. And from what has been seen he has no intention of putting her in danger.
After the US elections, Meloni was quick to announce on social media that he had already spoken on the phone “with his friend Elon Musk.” She was convinced that “their efforts and vision could be an important resource for the United States and Italy, in a spirit of collaboration.” Musk’s right-hand man in Italy, Andrea Stroppa, responded: “Italy can and must build a leading role in the sectors of the future. Becoming the privileged European partner must be the objective.” Italy does not hide that it aspires, as a leading far-right government in Europe, to be Trump’s favorite interlocutor in the EU.
But Stroppa’s message is interesting beyond the political. Musk and Italy have been talking about business for some time, especially the implementation of the Starlink satellite network in Italy, to provide internet service to areas with poor coverage, and also for use in ministries, in the army and in the diplomatic network. It is a business worth 1.5 billion euros, according to the Italian media. There are also talks about the production of Tesla electric trucks and vans in Italy. Everything was going well until a corruption investigation led to the arrest of the general director of Sogei, a company of the Ministry of Economy, for a series of suspicious contracts and activities. And among those investigated is, precisely, Andrea Stroppa. Italy then stopped negotiations. One more reason for Musk to not have a good opinion of the Italian judges.
