Ilaria Salis, from Strasbourg attacks on Orban and Meloni. McGuiness: “Infringement proceedings in case of violation”

from the correspondent in Strasbourg – “It has now become a European scandal,” said PD MEP Mercedes Bresso during a flash mob organized by the delegation of which she is a member before the works of the Parliament’s Plenary. The proceedings opened with a debate on the conditions of Ilaria Salis in jail in Hungary. “Chains are not worthy of Europe,” reads one of the placards displayed outside the Plenary, referring to how the Italian schoolteacher was brought to the courtroom in response to accusations of assault.

It was the Group of European Social Democrats (S&D), at the urging of the PD, that wanted the debate, anticipated by Elly Schlein‘s criticism of the government. The Democratic Party secretary, in Brussels, to meet with her people, criticizes Giorgia Meloni. “For months, she has been asking the government to intervene, but it only woke up when it saw the chains and the leash.” For Schlein, “it is hard not to think that this silence is the result of the friendship between Meloni and Orban, whom Meloni welcomes with open arms into her political family.”

Words that inflamed the House debate: Pietro Fiocchi (FDI/ECR) responds that “there should have never been this debate,” referring to the last-minute change in the agenda. “It is an instrumentation of the left to attack Italy and Hungary in the election campaign climate, as evidenced by the attacks by Secretary Schlein.”

Brando Benifei, on behalf of the Socialists, however, counterattacks, accusing first the Hungarian head of government, Orban, of “another violation of the rule of law” and then the Prime Minister and her team. “I read of ministers who have not seen; I am ashamed of the silence of the Italian government,” which, with Ilaria Salis, produces “an unworthy and embarrassing submission.”

For the Liberals (RE), Nicola Danti directly calls out Viktor Orban’s Hungary, where “the judiciary is subservient to political power” and, thus, the trial of Ilaria Salis is likely to be affected. He then indirectly criticizes Giorgia Meloni, saying that in the face of the Italian government’s non-reaction, “it is up to us to rise in the face of a woman in chains.”

Jean-Lin Lacapelle, for the sovereignists of Identity and Democracy, where Meloni’s allied League sits, counterattacks. “Salis is violent. She wanted to impose her far-left ideology in another country. Had it been an ambush by a nationalist, Europe would have condemned it. Here, instead, we are concerned about the detainee’s condition.”

Sabrina Pignedoli of the 5-Star Movement disagrees: “The chains that bound the hands and feet of Ilaria Salis in a courtroom went around the world because it is unthinkable that this could happen in a European Union country.” An approach that the EPP’s Tom Vandenkendelaere shares. “There is a systematic problem in the Hungarian prison system,” he denounces, asking the Commission to clarify. The Commission will assess and is ready to “launch infringement procedures if we find non-compliance with EU law,” Mairead McGuinness, Commissioner for Financial Services in the House on behalf of the entire college, said.