Majority to snub Salvini vote

(ANSA) - Rome, January 20 - Members of the majority will not attend a Senate panel session this afternoon to rule on lifting League leader and former interior minister Matteo Salvini's immunity to face charges of 'kidnapping' migrants aboard the Gregoretti coast guard ship last July, caucus leaders said Monday.
    Salvini has instructed his League Senators in the panel to vote to lift his immunity so he can face trial for "merely doing my duty in protecting Italy's borders".
    But the majority dropping out may deprive the panel of a quorum, and the case would be postponed to a vote on the Senate floor on February 17.
    The populist nationalist strongman has said there will be no court room big enough to contain all the supporters he will muster.
    Opponents have accused Salvini of trying to play the martyr in the case.
    Caucus leaders from the ruling anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) and their partners in the centre-left Democratic Party (PD) and the centrist Italia Viva (IV) said their members would not be attending the panel session, which is set for 17:00.
    This is the second time Salvini has been accused of taking migrants hostage at sea in enforcing his policy of closing Italy's ports to rescue ships.
    He used the policy primarily against NGO run ships, which he denied access completely.
    But he also held up the docking of coast guard run ships.
    Salvini has been accused of tying to use the case to drum up support for Sunday's key regional election in Emilia Romagna.
    The League-led centre right is bidding to wrest the traditionally centre left region from the PD.
    It won Umbria, another centre left stronghold, last year.
    Salvini said earlier he was ready to go to prison to defend his position ahead of the vote.
    "(Giovannino) Guareschi said that there are times when you have to pass through prison to reach freedom," Salvini said at a rally in Comacchio when asked about the case. "We are ready. I am ready".
    Te majority wants to put off the vote until after the Emilia Romagna elections.