The president of Italy has told Elon Musk to wander away.
President Sergio Mattarella of Italy reacted with evident anger on Wednesday after Elon Musk jumped with each feet right into a highly controversial domestic debate in regards to the far-right government’s migrant policies.
Musk tweeted an attack on Italian judges on Monday, saying that they were incorrect 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 neighboring Albania. “These judges have 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 within the wound.
The normally mild-mannered President Mattarella, who’s 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 indignant 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 U.S. government officials.
“Italy is an incredible democratic country and knows find out how to maintain itself,” said Mattarella. “Anyone, particularly if, as announced, he’s about to assume a crucial role of presidency in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and can’t give himself the duty of issuing it instructions.”
Mattarella was referring to the proven fact that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has named Musk because the co-head of a so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” or DOGE, which goals 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 selections?” This risposte from Musk only increased the anger and resentment on the tech billionaire amongst unusual Italians.
Italy’s supreme court is as a result of review the legality of the judge’s ruling in early December, but the ultimate word is more likely to remain with the European Court of Justice. An ECJ official said on Wednesday that the Luxembourg-based court could take months to make clear the matter.
While opposition politicians have blasted Musk for wading into domestic Italian politics and attempting 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 correct.” The middle-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 among the “recent oligarchs” aspiring to “control world politics and who’re a danger to democracy.”
Italy’s National Magistrates’ Association likewise condemned the billionaire’s intervention. “It isn’t any longer the independence of the judiciary that’s in query here, however the sovereignty of the Italian state,” said the association’s vice-president Alessandra Maddalena.
Carlo Calenda, a center-right political leader, praised President Mattarella’s criticism of Musk, saying it was obligatory to “safeguard the dignity of our nation.” Calenda has expressed concerns that American democracy under Trump could develop into 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 detailed friend of Musk’s and has splashed photographs of the 2 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 Latest York, where Musk awarded the Italian premier with the Global Citizen Award.
Many Italians imagine that Meloni’s so-called friendship with Musk will protect Italy from any recent tariffs that President-elect Trump plans to launch against Europe.
Meloni herself has remained very silent in recent days; she is believed to lend a hand 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 all the time listen with great respect to the words of the president of the Republic,” said Meloni. She didn’t, nevertheless, say that she agreed with Mattarella.
Last week Musk triggered a firestorm of criticism in Germany when he labeled German Chancellor Olaf Scholz a “idiot” 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 idiot.”
