Agnelli heir Lapo Elkann said Thursday there was a "shameful" absence of institutions at Lampedusa where many migrants drowned earlier this week in the latest migrant boat "tragedy". "I find it quite shameful that none of the institutions was present at Lampedusa for the tragedy of the migrants that took place," he said in Palermo during the signing of a protocol between his LAPS Foundation and the Sicilian Red Cross.
"It saddens me as an Italian, we pay politicians and they should be present", said the younger brother of FCA President John Elkann.
Nationalist populist opposition League party leader Matteo Salvini was irked by Elkann's comments.
He said Elkann had made "amazing statements".
Salvini was the architect of the previous government's controversial policy of closing Italian ports to NGO run migrant rescue ships.
The anti-migrant Euroskeptic leader fell from grace after pulling the plug on the League's alliance with the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) in July.
That M5S-League administration has now been replaced by an coalition featuring the M5S, the centre-left Democratic Party (PD), the centrist Italia Viva (IV) and the leftwing Free and Equal (LeU) parties.
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