Italian President Sergio Mattarella has sharply rebuked Elon Musk for weighing in on Italian court rulings that have set back the government’s plans to process some asylum seekers in Albania.
Mr Musk, who is expected to have a top advisory role in Donald Trump’s new US administration, wrote on X that “these judges need to go”.
He was referring to the latest Italian court ruling against right-wing Premier Giorgia Meloni’s Albanian immigration deal.
Italian President Sergio Mattarella issued an unusually strong statement (AP)
In a subsequent post on Wednesday, Mr Musk wrote: “This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”
The tweets concerned a Rome court’s refusal to rule on a formal request to detain seven migrants rescued at sea and transferred to Albania for processing.
Monday’s ruling, which resulted in the men being brought to Italy for processing, was the second judicial setback for Ms Meloni’s much-touted plan to outsource to Albania the processing of some male asylum-seekers.
Mr Mattarella did not cite Mr Musk by name but – in an unusually strong statement – made it clear on Wednesday that he was referring to him.
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Italy’s head of state demanded respect for Italy’s sovereignty, especially from other soon-to-be public officials.
“Italy is a great democratic country and … knows how to take care of itself while respecting its Constitution,” Mr Mattarella said in a statement issued by his spokesman.
“Anyone, particularly if as announced is about to assume an important role of government in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot attribute to himself the task of imparting prescriptions.”
Mr Trump announced on Tuesday that Mr Musk, one of the most influential people around the US President-elect, would help lead a Department of Government Efficiency – essentially an independent advisory panel to eliminate waste and fraud.
Mr Musk is a supporter of Ms Meloni and has met her in Rome on a few occasions and in September joined her at an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
Photos of them together made such news that Mr Musk seemingly felt the need to dampen down speculation by tweeting: “We are not dating.”
Mr Musk is a supporter of Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni (AP)
The courts’ rulings have raised the ire of Ms Meloni’s far-right-led government, which has been seeking strategies to ease the strain on Italy of the arrival of migrants seeking a better life in Europe.
The government had held up the opening of the Albanian centres as a centrepiece of its immigration crackdown, also as a means of deterrence, and said they could be a model for Europe.
In both cases, Italian courts referred the cases to the EU court of justice in Luxembourg to rule if the countries of origin for the migrants are considered safe countries for repatriation. There is no word on when the European court might rule.
But as a result of the Rome court decisions, no migrant has yet been processed in the Albanian centres, which are budgeted to cost Italy 670 million euro (£556 million) over five years to build and operate.
The Italian opposition says the money could be much better spent on reinforcing Italian-operated migrant processing centres, while human rights groups say the outsourcing of asylum processing contravenes international law.
The centres opened in October after a months-long delay because crumbling soil at one location needed to be repaired. They are run by Italy and are under Italian jurisdiction, while Albanian guards provide external security.