Standing in front of a small group of journalist, fresh MEP Ilaria Salis declared with all the seriousness she could muster that Hungarian authorities were conducting a “savage smear campaign” against her with the singular aim to “prevent her from carrying out her mandate”. Then she continued with her usual mantra about “arbitrary accusations” and the “inhuman and degrading conditions” of Hungarian prisons.
She made use of the media attention to define her MEP-credo, promising to fight for imprisoned people and other important social issues, like addressing the housing shortage and tackling the issue of excessive rental costs. And, of course, rule of law.
As if a legitimate request of judiciary authorities for lifting her immunity would be “bullying” or would, in any way, “damage the independence of the European Parliament” – and not a routine step when it comes to criminal procedures related to serious crimes.
Setting aside the fact that parliamentary immunity protects deputies from criminal proceedings relating to activities carried out in the exercise of the parliamentary mandate and not the things Ms. Salis is accused of; the truth is that Salis is trying to hide behind a made-up ideological façade, a non-existent political witch-hunt.
Or as she put it, “I hope and expect that Europe, the European Parliament, will stand in defence of fundamental rights, in defence of the presumption of innocence, the principle of proportionality and respect for the rule of law”. So far, she has rejected an 11-years plea bargain proposal, but failed to explain, what “proportionality” in her case would mean in her views.
Because Ilaria Salis wasn’t accused in Hungary of illegally organizing some far-left protest or loudly hailing the Soviet Union in front of the Hungarian Parliament.
Ms. Salis was charged in Hungary with three counts of attempted assault on alleged far-right demonstrators during a protest in Budapest in February 2023. As an aggravating circumstance, she was also accused of being part of a criminal organization: the members of which attacked people with batons and metal rods in different locations in Budapest based solely on “their looks”.
Not the first in her long line of run-ins with law.
This is a part that she failed to mention in her rather short (8 paragraphs altogether) CV submitted to the European Parliament. That is the biography of a saint: a “person sensitive to the problems of disadvantaged people”, someone who has worked “as an educator for several years in centres for adolescents with problems”.
Applying the principle of innocent until proven guilty to her CV requires everybody to believe that the things Ms. Salis failed to disclose to the greater public or to her fellow MEPs were either simply forgotten or were omitted with the intention to keep the document short and to the point.
Though she claims to fight for rule of law, in the past she didn’t hesitate to selectively apply only those rules that benefited her.
To start with, the harmless schoolteacher was involved in illegally occupying several social housing units. She didn’t only admit the crime, but was, in fact, proud of it, earning the condemnation of various politicians and civil activists.
Italia Viva’s Raffaella Paita, for example, lashed out at her, “today, Ilaria Salis claims the pride of having been part of the committees of struggle for housing, participating in property occupations (…) observing the law, respecting the rules is not optional but it is the pillar on which social coexistence is based. We wonder how a certain left can put arrogance before legality. We are always on the side of the weakest, Salis chooses instead to be with the bullies who squat illegally”.
In her fight for social justice and those in need, she decided to illegally occupy a house on via Giosue Borsi (Nr. 14, to be exact), starting from 2008.
During the time she spent there, she managed to accumulate a EUR 90,000 (yes, ninety-thousand) debt towards Aler, the authority responsible for managing social housing units in and around Milan. (It’s up to the readers to do the math, how many people could have gotten social housing from that amount.)
Her answer? In her views, the practice of demanding ‘occupancy allowances’ from tenants is a strategy systematically used to scare the occupants and try to make money, and occupying vacant properties was “part of the housing movement’s struggle”.
She also claimed that there was no proof that she truly lived there. Her lawyer repeated her statements about the authorities having failed to assess on ‘who actually occupied the accommodation’, but neighbours claim the contrary. Her lawyer also pointed out that Ms. Salis never had a contract with Aler. (Side note: that’s what makes the occupation illegal, isn’t it?)
In 2022, she was evicted from a different social housing unit – that time in Corvetto, south of Milan.
The list doesn’t stop with squatting.
Instead of being a humble elementary teacher, Ms. Salis is a prominent (and violent) activist of the Lombardian anarchist scene, according to police sources.
In fact, thanks to her militant activism, she has accumulated an impressive number of convictions (four in total) and quite a few charges.
Unfortunately for her, becoming a MEP in the European Parliament also means that her “certificate of criminal record” was issued by Italian authorities.
And that confirms what hard-working journalists dug up from her past, or more.
That Ilaria Salis is not a martyr, but a convicted felon.
The first conviction is for events in May 2015, in Milan, relating to a “crime of dangerous ignitions and explosions in competition”. Ms. Salis ignited firecrackers and smoke bombs in an illegal location (beyond the safety perimeters of San Vittore prison facility) and earned herself a fine with it. Italian legislation in force establishes that this crime shall not be included in Ms. Salis’s “certificate”.
Later, she was accused of resisting a public official during evictions of anarchist activists from a Milanese social centre and during the eviction of a building in Saronno.
The list got longer on May 19, 2019, that time with an “irrevocable sentence” issued by the Court of Appeal of Milan, confirming the sentence issued in October 2018 by the Court of Milan.
The charges? Illegal invasion of a building, a social housing unit at Corvetto. Media reports confirmed that she used violence to force her way into the building and also replaced the lock on the door.
As she was found in contempt of “recidivism” (the verdict refers to a 2014 conviction for a similar crime, though it is not mentioned in Ms. Salis’ “certificate of criminal record”), the two sentences got accumulated. The total sentence? One year and twenty days, suspended.
To take it one step further, on June 26, 2023, the prosecutors in Milan combined another sentence to her previous one – one issued by the Court of Appeals in Torino (the “certificate” mentions this sentence in Point 4, but no details are given), thus her, still suspended, sentence grew to 1 year, 3 months and 10 days.
In 2023, her past came back haunting her in a different form, as well.
That time with another irrevocable conviction issued by the Supreme Court, for resisting a public official during the previously mentioned 2014 clashes with police (Salis and her fellow anarchists tried to prevent the eviction of squatters from a building). Ms. Salis was found guilty of throwing garbage bags and bins towards police officers, shouting insults in the meantime.
This time, the court upheld the sentence delivered by the Milan Court in 2022, thus Salis was sentenced to six months in prison.
Her previous record was not forgotten; thus, the combined sentence became 1 year, 9 months and 10 days. Suspended, again.
In addition to this, Ms. Salis has 29 other complaints against her for various minor infractions.
This paints a more nuanced picture of the smiling elementary teacher, who won the hearts of people and their sympathies, being led to the Hungarian courtroom in handcuffs (a practice completely legal in Hungary, by the way).
A portrait of more than a decade of militant activism and violence.
Of a person who, in the past, hasn’t refrained from breaking the law or hurting people (even police officers) in the name of ideological fight, alone or acting in coordination with others.
According to Minister of Infrastructure and Transport Matteo Salvini, “it was absurd that this Salis in Italy is a teacher, I don’t think she can do that job”.
And indeed, it is hard to imagine that any respectable private company would employ anybody with as questionable reputation as Ms. Salis.
Luckily for Ms. Salis, the European Parliament doesn’t seem to care.