Some 5,000 Italians on Tuesday
fasted in support of League leader Matteo Salvini after a Senate
panel voted to send him to trial for allegedly kidnapping some
100 migrants on board a coast guard ship last July.
"I thank you because there are 5,000 Italian women and men
who are fasting today, who are giving up their breakfast, lunch
and dinner as a sign of sympathy and protest," said the
nationalist opposition leader and former interior minister.
"It will do me good, perhaps (TV chat show host Lili) Gruber
will stop saying I've got a big belly".
"Today I'm fasting in the name of an Italy which must have
the right to defend its borders, its jobs, its culture, its
beauty, its history, itself security and its identity," said the
populist strongman.
"Because for me blocking clandestine immigration was not a
right but a duty.
"If that is a crime for the (ruling centre-left Democratic
Party) PD and for some judges, try me and arrest me".
The Senate panel vote, which is not the final say in the
case, came after the PD and its ruling partner the 5-Star
Movement (M5S) boycotted the vote and Salvini's League members
of the committee voted in favour of their leader standing trial.
The Senate will now vote on lifting his parliamentary
immunity to face the kidnapping charges in a full session on
February 17.
The ruling majority has accused Salvini of wanting to play
the victim and martyr in the case to boost his already high poll
numbers, ahead of crunch regional elections in Emilia Romagna on
Sunday.
Salvini's centre right allies voted against him facing trial,
while the M5S and PD boycotted the vote after he ordered his own
members to vote to put him on trial.
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