Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Matteo Salvini told the Senate on Wednesday that his handling of the case of the Diciotti coast guard ship protected the interests of the Italian people.
Salvini was addressing the Upper House before it votes on whether to grant authorisation to prosecutors in Sicily to proceed with a case of alleged kidnapping against him for refusing to allow over 100 migrants to disembark from the Diciotti coast guard ship for several days during a standoff with the EU last summer.
"I'd have to lie to the Senate of the Italian people in order to go to trial and say that I did not act for the public interest," League leader Salvini said. The upper house's parliamentary immunity panel voted last month not to lift Salvini's immunity to face trial in the case.
Salvini's League and the lawmakers from his coalition partners, the 5-Star Movement (M5S), are expected to vote against stripping the minister of his parliamentary immunity as is Silvio Berlusconi's opposition centre-right Forza Italia.
But some members of the M5S are unhappy about this stance and one of the movement's Senators has said he will buck the party line.
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