Last Saturday, Oct. 3, former Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini went on trial in Catania, Siclily, for alleged “kidnapping“ even though the prosecutor calls the case “baseless.“
MINA reveals how leftist NGOs backed by George Soros and the EU are trying to lock up the head of Italy’s leading opposition party.
In July 2019, the Italian Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini refused to let 116 illegal migrants ashore off the coast guard ship “Bruno Gregoretti” in Catania until other European countries agreed to take in the illegal aliens (Italian: “Clandestini”).
As Il Giornale reported, the prosecutor in Catania believes the case is “baseless”. Sending a Minister of the Interior to prison for protecting his country’s borders would certainly be unprecedented in legal history.
Salvini voiced confidence Saturday, and was supported by his political rivals Giorgia Meloni (Fratelli d’Italia) and Antonio Tajani (Forza Italia) in Catania. A majority of Italians supports Salvini’s law and order stance on illegal migration, reports Lorenzo Pregliasco on YouTrend .
What few people know however, is that the case against Salvini is not being pressed by the Sicilian DA or the “kidnapped” migrants, but by left-wing NGOs funded by the EU and George Soros Open Society Foundations, as Il Giornale reports.
The only plaintiffs to support the case out of the 116 illegal migrants is the Nigerian couple Jafra and Aishat Saha, who had to wait 20 hours in Catania harbor to go ashore in Europe while pregnant.
The case is actually being filed by NGOs which belong to the leftist Italian “community organizers” ARCI, Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana, which operates youth, culture and community centers in all of Italy, as well as its allies in the environmental NGO Legambiente. Both organizations are closely tied to the ruling leftist PD party. Legambiente president Gianfranco Zanna was a member of the Communist Youth PCI. “The only plaintiffs in this case are civil society organizations”, boasted Legambiente attorney Daniela Ciancimino.
While Legambiente claims to be an environmental organization, migration is somehow part of its agenda as well, as the group explains. “Why do we care about migrants? We were always concerned about the environment, and people are part of that environment, no matter what their passport, because we have been practicing human ecology for 39 years, which Pope Francis also supports,” was Legambiente’s awkward explanation.
As the major organization of the Italian Left (Sinistra Italiana), ARCI has over one million members and is closely allied with the ruling PD and the Open Society Network in Italy. Arci works closely with Italian NGO “Mediterraneo – Saving Humans” to ferry illegal migrants to Europe.
Soros-financed “Lawfare” NGOs such as ASGI (Association for Juridical Studies on Immigration)),A Buon Diritto and CILD (Italian Coalition for Civil Liberties and Rights) have been fighting for “No Borders” policies in Italian and EU courts for years, including the landmark 2012 case “Hirsi Jamaa et al. vs. Italy”, which effectively prevented EU nations from protecting their borders.
In 2018, together with ARCI and the Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), ASGI filed suit before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in the case “GLAN-ASGI”, to further criminalize border protection. In February 2020, U.S. conservative activist Jay Sekulow’s European Center for Law and Justice (ECLJ) documented the massive influence of Open Society Foundations on the ECHR, as MINA reported.
– In 2018, ASGI received $385,715 from Open Society, according to their website
– In 2016, CILD received $575,000 from Open Society, according to their website
– ARCI recieved $1,700 in 2016, $61,840 in 2017 and $149,760 in 2018 from Open Society
According to the EU Financial Transparency System (FTS), in 2015-2019, ARCI and its subsidiaries such as ArciGay and ARCI Strauss culture organization received at least €3.409.206 direct funding from the EU (2015: €194,324; 2016: €135,311; 2017: €874,252; 2018: €1,238,031; 2019: €967,298).
In other words: The charges against Matteo Salvini are being pressed by NGOs which are funded by Open Society and EU taxpayer Euros.
EU Budget Rapporteur 2019 MEP Joachim Kuhs (AfD) told MINA: “For a left-wing NGO, which is closely related to the current government, to file criminal charges against the previous administration for protecting their country’s borders, funded by the EU and Open Society, must outrage any thinking person who holds our democracy dear. Taxpayer Euros may not be used to fund political hit jobs. The EU must immediately stop all funding to partisan, politically motivated NGOs.”