It didn’t take long for Elon Musk to be accused of meddling in Italy’s domestic affairs.
The tech billionaire’s declaration that “these judges need to go,” splashed across all of Italy’s front pages, came amidst increasing tension between Italy’s ruling coalition and the judiciary after a panel of Rome magistrates questioned the legality of a government initiative to detain asylum-seekers in Albania.
Musk prompted a highly unusual statement from Italian President Sergio Mattarella, who told him not to interfere in Italian affairs.
“Italy is a great democratic country and… knows how to take care of itself,” said Mattarella. “Anyone, particularly if, as announced, he is about to assume an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot take it upon himself to issue instructions.”
Musk, who owns Tesla and X, has recently been picked by Donald Trump to head up his planned new Department of Government Efficiency.
He has also developed close ties with Giorgia Meloni since she was elected over two years ago on the promise of cracking down on illegal migration.
Two processing centres in Albania, built and managed by the Italian government to help manage the migrant flow in the Mediterranean towards Italy, soon became the symbol of her hard stance on migration.
But delays in the project, legal hurdles and human rights concerns, as well as doubts about cost-effectiveness, have undermined its success so far.
Last week a Rome court ordered the transfer of seven Egyptian and Bangladeshi asylum seekers from one of the two centres to Italy.
The court had already ruled last month against the detention of other migrants from the same countries in Albania, a decision that the Italian prime minister had labelled “prejudicial”.
The two centres are currently empty, and Italian authorities are scaling back the number of staff on the ground.