Salvini fans pray at defamation trial

(ANSA) - Turin, December 10 - Dozens of admirers of nationalist opposition League leader Matteo Salvini prayed for him outside a Turin trial into his defaming the judiciary on Tuesday.
    Salvini, who has frequently accused prosecutors of politicising justice with their probes into his anti-migrant moves, was not present at the hearing because of his busy parliamentary schedule.
    But his fans, members of the I Cinque Sassi (Five Rocks) group, turned up anyway.
    "We are proud of him and of the work he is doing for Italy and the Italians," said the promoter of the initiative, Angela Ciconte.
    She said she had met the former interior minister at a book event Saturday and got his approval for the initiative.
    Salvini frequently ends his firebrand speeches against migrants and the government with a prayer to Mary to look out for Italy, and brandishes rosary beads.
    "We know," said Ciconte, "that he prays as we do. But we would never have dared to do something without his permission".
    Salvini has been criticised, notably by Premier Giuseppe Conte, for allegedly exploiting religious images and prayers for political effect.
    A new grass roots movement, the Sardines, has recently sprung up against Salvini's populist far-right rhetoric and the League's bid to wrest Emilia Romagna from the centre left next month after a recent win in Umbria, another longtime leftwing fief.
    The sardines have been demonstrating all over Italy and are set for a major rally in Rome this weekend.