Italian politician Matteo Salvini has thanked Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for his support in a Facebook post and announced that he will be in Budapest on Friday. In his post, the Italian politician shared the words of Orbán, who called Salvini "Europe's bravest patriot" in a post on X on Monday, and said that he had been punished for stopping migration. Orbán said those who are defending the continent are constantly being punished. "What is going on? Matteo Salvini is our hero," he added.
In mid-September, the Palermo prosecutor's office sought a six-year prison sentence for the former Interior Minister and current Deputy Prime Minister of Italy on charges of kidnapping and abuse of office. Salvini's trial began approximately three years ago in Palermo, Sicily. The politician is being prosecuted for refusing, for almost three weeks in the summer of 2019, to allow illegal immigrants arriving in Sicily on a boat belonging to the Spanish NGO Open Arms to disembark.
A year later, the Italian Parliament stripped Salvini of his immunity in the context of the Open Arms case, in which he was charged with hostage-taking, abuse of power and violation of international conventions, among other offences.
Matteo Salvini was the Interior Minister of Italy in 2018-2019, during the coalition government of the Five Star Movement and Salvini's right-wing Lega Nord. As minister, he cracked down on boats arriving at Italian shores, blocking their docking on several occasions and demanding that the European Union ease Italy's burden in dealing with illegal immigration.
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