(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 13 - Italian President Sergio Mattarella on Wednesday said Italy knows how to take care of itself after Elon Musk wrote on his platform X that Rome judges who nixed the detention of a second batch of migrants subjected to Italy's controversial new policy of taking asylum seekers to be processed in Albania "needed to go".
    "Italy is a great democratic country and I must reiterate that it knows how to take care of itself, while respecting its Constitution", the president said.
    Mattarella was quoting a statement he made on October 7, 2022, when he responded to an interview given by former French European Affairs minister Laurence Boone to Rome daily Repubblica in which she had expressed concern for the new cabinet to be led by rightwing Premier Giorgia Meloni, over Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI) party's neo-Fascist roots.
    The president on Wednesday went on to say that "anyone, particularly if, as announced," they are "about to undertake an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect sovereignty and cannot claim the role of imparting provisions".
    The Tesla, X and SpaceX owner Musk, who was appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to head a newly created government efficiency agency, had written the previous night via X that "these judges need to go," on a user's post on the news of the suspension of the validation of the seven migrants' detention decided by the immigration section of the court of Rome.
    The court referred the case to the European Court of Justice.
    And on Wednesday, Musk commented on the court's ruling again, slamming it as "unacceptable" and questioning whether an "unelected autocracy" made decisions in Italy.
    "This is unacceptable.
    "Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?", wrote Musk.
    The tech tycoon was responding to a post on X saying "Giorgia Meloni's government in Italy will not be allowed to deport illegal aliens according to judges who ruled against her decision".
    The post commented on by Musk also said "Italy's borders will remain open and the New Europeans will be allowed to flood both Italy and Europe forever more".
    Musk also retweeted a post on X by a right-wing Dutch commentator saying he and Meloni were right and President Sergio Mattarella was wrong in the migrants to Albania furore.
    The tycoon reposted a comment on Mattarella's 'we don't need lessons' statement by Eva Vlaardingerbroek, written in Italian.
    "No. @elonmusk & PM @GiorgiaMeloni are right," the post said.
    "The fact that the judges of the Rome court believe they are above the government and the democratic process is madness.
    "They are not a Constitutional Court, so they are overstepping their jurisdiction in violation of the separation of powers".
    Also on Wednesday, sources at Meloni's office said she always listens to Mattarella with great respect.
    "We always listen with great respect to the words of the President of the Republic", Meloni was quoted as saying by sources at Palazzo Chigi.
    Cabinet Undersecretary Giovanbattista Fazzolari also said Mattarella was right while noting that interference of all kinds should always be rejected, whatever its provenance.
    "It is right and proper that the President of the Republic, the head of the judiciary and guarantor of the Constitution, should make his voice heard," Fazzolari told ANSA.
    "Italy can look after itself.
    "We do not need foreign interference from other governments, NGOs, or big media organizations.
    "This is always true for Brothers of Italy with anyone.
    "It is surprising though, that the Left turn out to be on-and-off nationalists, invoking external interference against this government and being scandalized when a person like Musk, who is not currently in office in any government, comments on Italian affairs".
    Earlier on Wednesday, the leader of the largest opposition group, Democratic Party (PD) chief Elly Schlein, had slammed the government's behaviour as "embarrassing for letting an American billionaire dictate the line.
    "His repeated statements against the Italian judiciary are an unacceptable attack against a constitutional institution", she said.
    "What is Meloni waiting for to defend national sovereignty?", added Schlein in a post on Instagram.
    The leader of the populist Five-Star Movement (M5S) party, two-time ex-premier Giuseppe Conte, said Musk "doesn't know the ABCs of democratic parliamentary systems.
    "Who elected him?", he added, while expressing concern for his "excessive power".
    Meanwhile the judiciary's union, the National Association of Magistrates (ANM), on Wednesday accused the government of letting Musk meddle in Italian affairs.
    "An American tycoon who is so influential in the new administration of that country talking about the internal affairs of the sovereign Italian state is something that catches the eye", ANM President Giuseppe Santalucia told Radio 24.
    "He has meddled in Italy's affairs making unfounded - naive at best - judgments, without anyone in government considering responding by saying that these are Italy's affairs in which he has no right to intervene.
    "Borders are to be defended when it comes to illegal immigration and... there are ideal borders that cannot be violated by someone who thinks they can interfere in the internal affairs of a sovereign country".
    And also on Wednesday, the Italian chapter of German migrant-rescue NGO Sea Watch also said it would not be intimidated by "anti-democratic bullies" after Musk called it a "criminal organization" on X.
    "We will not be intimidated by anti-democratic bullies who threaten those who respect human rights, judges or NGOs", Sea Watch Italia wrote on X.
    "He calls us criminals.
    "Our only 'crime' is to bear testimony to brutal policies at sea, like failing to rescue" migrants, the NGO wrote, mentioning a shipwreck off the Sicilian island of Lampedusa on September 2 in which 21 people died.
    Musk late on Tuesday wrote on his platform that the German NGO is a "criminal organization" after the group accused him of threatening the Italian justice system over his criticism of the decision by Rome judges.
    It is the second time the multi-billionaire has spoken out on Italian migration.
    The immigration unit of Rome's tribunal on Monday referred the case concerning the second group of migrants taken to a new Italian-run centre in Albania to the European Court of Justice, suspending the validation of their detention.
    The Rome court suspended judgement pending the ruling of the European Court of Justice on the potential primacy of EU law over Italian legislation in determining the safety of a migrant's country of origin in order to identify the procedures to be implemented in a specific asylum case.
    The seven migrants at the centre of the controversial case, who are citizens of Egypt and Bangladesh, have been taken back to a hosting facility in Italy pending the decision of the European Court of Justice On October 18, the same immigration unit of Rome's tribunal had failed to validate the detention of 12 migrants who were part of the first group to be taken to Albania under the government's controversial agreement with Tirana to run migrant-centres on Albanian territory.
    The court at the time rejected the migrants' detention in Albania as part of accelerated border procedures on the grounds that their countries of provenance, which were also Bangladesh and Egypt, could not be considered wholly safe, based on an October 4 sentence of the European Court of Justice.
    Their cases thus needed to be examined under a regular procedure, which was not possible in Albania, the court said.
    The cabinet has since passed a measure setting a list of 19 safe countries, including Bangladesh and Egypt, in order to overcome the legal hurdle to the agreement being applied, saying courts needed to rule based on the decree rather than on the European Court of Justice's sentence.
    However the Rome court on Monday said the "criteria for the designation of a State as a safe country of origin are laid out by European Union law" with the judge having the "duty to always and concretely verify" the "correct implementation of the Union's law", which legally "prevails over national law when it is incompatible with it", in examining specific cases.
    It added that the designation of a country as safe "is relevant only to identify the procedures to be implemented" in a case examined by a court and does "not prevent the repatriation and/or the expulsion of the migrant person whose asylum request has been rejected or that does not have the legal requirements to stay in Italy".
    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has held up the Albania protocol as a potential example for other countries and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is among the foreign officials who have voiced interest in it.
    The Italian opposition says it is an expensive propaganda stunt that will only address a small fraction, an estimated 2%, of the migrants currently reaching Italy.
    When up to speed the two centres are projected to be able to process a yearly total of 3,000 migrants.
    Last year over 150,000 migrants reached Italy's shores.
    The scheme has been costed at over 800 million euros over five years.
    Meloni says the project is a model other countries are envious of.
    Musk is close to Meloni and also has a longtime admirer in anti-migrant League party leader and Deputy Premier Matteo Salvini, who has insisted the tycoon is right in criticising what Salvini calls "Communist judges".
    On September 23 Musk presented Meloni with the 'Global Citizen Award 2024 from Washington-based think tank Atlantic Council, praising her as "someone who is even more beautiful inside than outside".
    Musk said Meloni had done "an incredible job" as prime minister with "record growth and employment".
    "She is someone who is authentic, honest, truthful", added the billionaire during a ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan.
    Thanking Musk for his "precious genius", Meloni delivered a passionate defence of Western values. After feverish social media speculation over pictures of the pair enjoying each other's company, Musk denied suggestions they might be having an affair. (ANSA).