The images of the Italian activist Ilaria Salis, tied hand and foot in a Hungarian court, made a huge impression in her country. This anti-fascist, a 39-year-old teacher, could be one of the surprising new faces in the European Parliament: the Green-Left Alliance has presented her as a candidate with the aim of obtaining parliamentary immunity and Budapest having no choice but to release her if at finally becomes an MEP so that she can attend the first session of the European Parliament, at the beginning of July
Salis, accused of having attacked neo-Nazi militants, had been in preventive detention for more than a year until yesterday she was able to obtain house arrest – always in Hungary – after her family managed to raise, thanks to donations, more than 40,000 euros of bail imposed by the Hungarian justice system. After great public pressure and the work of Italian diplomacy, last week Budapest allowed him house arrest with an electronic bracelet.
Today he will testify again in court, where witnesses to the events of February 10, 2023 will testify, when thousands of people from all over Europe went to Hungary to commemorate, with demonstrations and events, the action of a Nazi battalion that in 1945 He tried to prevent the siege of Budapest by the Red Army. Salis pleaded not guilty from the beginning, while another defendant, a German, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years in prison.
“It is impossible for me to arrive in Italy soon. The fastest way is parliamentary immunity,” his father, Roberto Salis, who is campaigning on his behalf, tells La Vanguardia. The detainee’s family has long denounced the inhumane conditions in which she was in a high-security prison, “treated like an animal,” in a cell with rats and bedbugs that were causing an allergic reaction.
They also reported that during the first six months she could not have contact with them, and that during the first week she did not have access to soap, toilet paper or feminine hygiene products. “Until the images of her chained were made public, nothing was done,” says her father.
Now, the objective of the Green-Left Alliance, a small progressive formation, is to overcome the threshold of 4% of the votes for Salis to be elected. Then a direct fight would open with Hungary, a country whose leader, Viktor Orbán, is a close ally of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni. If Salis is an MEP and the Hungarian justice system does not allow her release, this could open a new dispute between the country and the European justice system. “It is incredible that in a European country Nazi demonstrations are allowed, as well as that there is repression as strong as what my daughter has suffered in Hungary,” laments Roberto Salis.
