Rackete to ask to close Salvini social media accounts

(ANSA) - Rome, July 11 - Sea-Watch3 skipper Carola Rackete will tomorrow file a suit to close Interior Minister Matteo Salvini's Facebook and Twitter accounts because they allegedly stoked hate against her and the Sicilian prosecutor who released her after she defied the minister's closed-ports policy, Alessandra Vella.
    In the suit, which will attach rape threats from social media users, the 31-year-old German migrant rescue ship captain will argue that far-right League leader Salvini, who called her "a rich Communist scamp who shops in Portofino", spreads hatred and instigates people to commit crimes.
    Far-right League party leader Salvini has dismissed claims, notably from 5-Star Movement (M5S) equal opportunities cabinet secretary Vincenzo Spadafora, that his comments on Rackete were sexist, saying he would have said the same things about a man.
    He has called on Spadafora to resign "if he can't stand being in government with dangerous male chauvinists and fascists".
    The anti-establishment M5S is the League's partner in Italy's populist government.
    Spadafora stands by what he said and refuses to resign.