Interior Minister Matteo Salvini on
Thursday slammed Strega prizewinning author and screenplay
writer Edoardo Albinati for apparently saying he hoped one of
the migrant children on board the Aquarius might die.
"How shameful!" said Salvini in a tweet, posting a recording
in which Albinati, during a book presentation in Milan on
Tuesday, can be heard saying "I have to say that yesterday I
myself, with a realpolitik approach of which I was also ashamed,
hoped that someone on the Aquarius might die. I said to myself:
now, if a child dies, I want to see what happens to our
government".
On Sunday Salvini, leader of the anti-migrant League,
announced that the Aquarius operated by NGO SOS Mediterranée and
carrying 629 migrants would not be allowed to dock in Italian
ports.
The move led to a 30-hour standoff with Malta and a chorus of
protests from opposition parties, the Church, civil society and
Italy's cultural community, including Albinati himself.
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