Italy’s President Sergio Mattarella rebuked Elon Musk on Wednesday after the American billionaire questioned whether Italians live in an “unelected autocracy.”
The Tesla, X and SpaceX owner, who was appointed by United States President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to head a newly created government efficiency agency, had commented on an Italian court decision blocking Rome’s plans to offshore migrant detention and processing to Albania.
“This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?” he wrote on X, in reply to a user comment.
After a court in Rome on Tuesday refused to detain seven migrants in Albania and referred the matter to the European Court of Justice, Musk wrote on X that the Italian judges “need to go.”
Mattarella, who also heads the body governing Italy’s judiciary, defended the judges and chided Musk for his statements, especially given his upcoming role in the U.S. government.
“Italy is a great democratic country, and knows how to take care of itself while respecting its Constitution,” Mattarella said in a statement. “Anyone, especially if … they are about to take on an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot assume the task of giving it instructions.”
Musk’s attack on the judges echoed the Meloni government’s own repeated attacks on Italy’s judiciary, but caused outrage from opposition politicians over “foreign interference” and drew demands that Meloni denounce Musk and respond in the country’s parliament.
Peppe De Cristofaro of the opposition Green and Left Alliance said in a statement that Musk’s words were “dangerous for democracy” and had been “intended to intimidate judges … While Trump has not yet become president of the United States, his long arm extends to Europe, to destabilize it.”
Musk’s inflammatory rhetoric risks becoming a burden for Meloni, with whom he enjoys warm relations.
Last week, the X-owner also called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “a fool.”
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