Interior Minister Matteo Salvini
said Thursday that Roberto Saviano's security detail will be
assessed, while stressing that he will not decide whether the
anti-mafia writer's protection is kept or not.
"The competent institutions will evaluate whether he runs any
risks, in part because it seems to me that he spends a lot of
time abroad," Salvini told State broadcaster RAI.
"They will evaluate how the money of the Italian people is
spent".
Saviano has been in round-the-clock police protection
since his ground-breaking book Gomorra (Gomorrah) lifted the lid
on the Neapolitan Camorra in 2006.
The book was adapted to a successful film adaptation and
spawned a hit TV series.
Saviano is a highly vocal critic of Salvini, especially of
his hard-line stance on migrants.
The writer accused Salvini of being the "minister of the
underworld" later on Thursday.
"Italy is the Western country with the highest number of
journalists under security escort because it has the world's
most powerful criminal organizations," Saviano said via Twitter.
"But Matteo Salvini, the interior minister, instead of
fighting the mafias, threatens to silence those who report on
it. #MinistrodellaMalavita (#MinisteroftheUnderworld).
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