Italy’s president reprimands Elon Musk over comments on X

ROME (AP) — Italy’s president Sergio Mattarella sharply reprimanded Elon Musk Wednesday to weigh in on Italian court decisions which has hampered the government’s plans to process some asylum seekers in Albania.

Musk, who is expected to have a top advisory role in Donald Trump’s new governmentwrote on Tuesday the X that “these judges must go.” He referred to the latest Italian court ruling against right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s much-publicized immigration deal from Albania.

“This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?” he wrote in a subsequent post on Wednesday.

The positions related to a Rome court’s refusal to rule on a formal request to detain seven migrants who were rescued at sea and transferred to Albania for processing. Monday’s ruling resulted in the men being taken to Italy for treatment.

Mattarella did not quote Musk by name, but – in an unusually heated statement – made it clear on Wednesday that he was referring to him. Italy’s head of state demanded respect for the country’s sovereignty, especially from other future public officials.

“Italy is a great democratic country and … knows how to take care of itself while respecting its constitution,” Mattarella said in a statement issued by his spokesman.

“Anyone, especially if, as announced, is assuming an important role as the government of a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot ascribe to himself the task of giving prescriptions,” the statement said.

Trump announced Tuesday that Musk, one of the most influential people around the US president-elect, would help lead a Department of Government Efficiency, essentially an independent advisory panel to eliminate waste and fraud.

Musk is a supporter of Meloni and has met with her in Rome on a few occasions, and in September he joined her at an awards ceremony on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly. Photos of them together made such news that Musk apparently felt the need to quell the speculation by writing, “We are not dating.”

Musk has a history of making provocative statements and sparring with executives at X. Earlier this year, he wrote a post messages insulting British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and said Britain was headed for civil war. He has also clashed with one Brazilian Supreme Court Judge over freedom of expression, far-right accounts and alleged misinformation about X, and also accused Venezuela’s socialist president Nicolás Maduro of “major electoral fraud” following the country’s disputed election.

Later Wednesday, an Italian representative for X, Andrea Stroppa, tweeted what appeared to be a statement from Musk saying he had spoken with Meloni during the day. According to Stroppa’s tweet, Musk “expresses his respect” for Mattarella and the Italian constitution, but insists on his right to free speech.

The courts’ rulings have angered Meloni’s far-right-led government, which has sought strategies to ease the burden on Italy of the arrival of migrants seeking a better life in Europe. The government had held up the opening of the Albanian centers as a centerpiece of its immigration crackdown, also as a deterrent, saying they could be a model for Europe.

In both cases, Italian courts referred the cases to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg to determine whether the migrants’ countries of origin are considered safe for repatriation. There is no information on when the European Court may make a decision.

But as a result of the Rome court rulings, no migrant has yet been processed in the Albanian centers, which are budgeted to cost Italy 670 million euros ($730 million) over five years to build and operate.

Italy’s opposition says the money could be much better spent on strengthening Italian-run migrant processing centers, while human rights groups say outsourcing asylum processing violates international law.

The centers opened in October after a month-long delay because crumbling soil at one of the facilities needed to be repaired. They are run by Italy and are under its jurisdiction, while Albanian guards provide external security.