The dates circled in red are September 23 and October 7. Next Tuesday, the European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee will decide whether or not to waive the immunity of Ilaria Salis, a Cagliari-born MEP elected on the AVS ticket. Salis was held in a maximum-security Hungarian prison for almost a year and was released after her election to Strasbourg.

If the European Parliament committee votes in favor of the recall, the European Parliament will have to decide in its plenary session on October 7, and the EPP's 188 votes will be decisive . Indeed, based on the numbers, the Left MEP will avoid returning to prison if at least a third of the People's Party's members vote alongside the Progressive Front. If she loses her immunity, however, the government led by Viktor Orban could issue an international arrest warrant.

She doesn't hide her concern: "These are difficult days," Salis says in an interview with Repubblica. "I have faith in my colleagues called to vote on immunity, but yes, I am worried. The scenario that could unfold is terrifying. If parliament were to revoke my immunity, my trial in Budapest would restart: a show trial, with a pre-written sentence, conducted in the absence of democratic guarantees. A trial in which it is impossible to defend oneself and in which I would risk up to 24 years in prison, a sentence disproportionate to the facts I am accused of. I could be extradited to Hungary, returned to those who dragged me to court on a leash and in chains, to those who held me in prison for more than fifteen months in inhumane conditions."

And the escalation of tension is demonstrated not only by the tweet in which the Hungarian government spokesman sent Salis the coordinates of the maximum security prison in Hungary, but also by Orbán's own decision (in line with Trump) to declare the 'Antifa' group a terrorist organization: " They came to us too, beat innocent people in the street, beat some of them to death, then went to Brussels to become representatives of the European Parliament and from there they are lecturing Hungary on the rule of law," Orbán said, referring, without naming her, to Salis.

In the Italian center-right, Giovanni Donzelli of the Italian League (FdI) was harsh: "I believe that if Salis made her choices courageously, she should renounce her parliamentary immunity. If she doesn't renounce it, Parliament should vote to waive Salis's immunity." Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani is convinced that the AVS MEP is not a terrorist: "I must not comment on the decisions of other states," the Deputy Prime Minister stated. "I don't believe Salis is a terrorist. Her views are very different from mine; there's a trial against her, but I don't know she's a terrorist."

"I hope her immunity is confirmed," says Walter Verini of the Democratic Party, while Giorgio Marasà, foreign affairs director for the Si party, says he is convinced that "the issue MEPs will have to decide on is much bigger than Ilaria Salis's immunity. The choice is between defending democracy and the law—and the authoritarian brutality of Orban and his friends." The Avs MEP's lawyers also lashed out against the Hungarian president's decision: "Now Orban," emphasize lawyers Eugenio Losco and Mauro Straini, "has come up with a fanciful definition of terrorism that coincides with anti-fascism, to be applied retroactively to the Salis case. Is there really anyone who still thinks the conditions exist for a fair trial against Ilaria Salis in Budapest?"

(Unioneonline)

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