(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 19 - Elon Musk forced the Italian Left to defend Italy's sovereignty after he called for the dismissal of Italian judges who had nixed the detention of migrants taken to new processing centres in Albania, Premier Giorgia Meloni said Tuesday.
    The premier said this contradicted the centre left's call for the EU to open infraction proceedings against Italy for the controversial new policy of offshoring migrant processing to a non-EU country.
    "The left is tearing its clothes over (Musk's) interference after having, among other things, asked the EU to open an infringement for Italy", said Meloni, in Rio de Janeiro for the G20, during a press briefing.
    "Among the many exploits that Musk has achieved is having forced the left to defend national sovereignty", said the premier, who is a personal friend of the world's richest man.
    Last week, Musk said "these judges need to go" referring to a decision by Rome magistrates not to validate the detention of a second group of migrants taken to the controversial new Italian-run centres in Albania.
    He also slammed the decision on his X platform as "unacceptable", wondering whether an "unelected autocracy make the decisions".
    "Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?", wrote the Tesla, X and SpaceX owner, who has been appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump to head a newly created government efficiency agency.
    At the time, the Italian Left slammed Musk's intervention as unacceptable interference.
    The leader of the largest opposition group, Democratic Party (PD) chief Elly Schlein, criticized 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?", she said.
    The leader of the populist Five-Star Movement (M5S) party, two-time ex-premier Giuseppe Conte, also said Musk "doesn't know the ABCs of democratic parliamentary systems.
    "Who elected him?", he added, while expressing concern for his "excessive power".
    Speaking after Donald Trump's stunning comeback victory in the US presidential election, Meloni called Musk, a big supporter of the Trump campaign, "an added value and potential interlocutor".
    On September 23 Musk had 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" and saying she had done "an incredible job" as prime minister during a ceremony at the Ziegfeld Ballroom in Manhattan.
    Meanwhile on Tuesday, Meloni told reporters on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro that illegal migration has an impact on violence against women, together with other causes, stressing the government's commitment to halt it.
    "Women's empowerment and violence against women are different things.
    "Violence against women is a theme we are far from resolving.
    "All causes must be dealt with.
    "Figures show a significant impact of mass illegal migration and Italy will continue to work to stop it.
    "There are also other causes on which we will work", noted the prime minister.
    Meloni went on to say that "there are also cultural reasons" behind gender-based violence which we "must continue to fight".
    "It is a paradox that violence against women increases while women conquer more space.
    "This must induce us to reflect", added the premier, stressing that the government is committed to fighting the phenomenon.
    Later on Tuesday, Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said 96 women have been killed between January 1 and November 3 this year, including 82 who were murdered by a family member and specifically 51 by a partner or an ex.
    "From January 1 until November 3 this year, in Italy, 263 murders were registered: 96 victims were women, 82 killed within the family or by someone close and 51 by a partner or ex-partner", said the interior minister, speaking at the presentation of the campaign against gender-based violence 'No Excuse' at Rome's Luiss University.
    Piantedosi went on to say that Italy "needs to promote an unequivocal and courageous message: violence against women continues to be an emergency to be fought with every possible solution".
    On Monday, Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara had said a rise in rapes and sexual violence in Italy was linked to illegal immigration.
    Speaking in a video message during the presentation of the Giulia Cecchettin Foundation dedicated to the memory of the 22-year-old student slain last year by her Italian ex-boyfriend, Valditara said that "we must not pretend not to see that the increase in sexual violence is also linked to forms of marginalization and deviance that in some way derive from illegal immigration".
    And on Tuesday, the centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) criticised Meloni's apparent defence of Valditara.
    "I humbly remind President Meloni that 80% of femicides are committed by Italians," said the national justice pointwoman of the party, Debora Serracchiani.
    "Stop making propaganda on the backs of women," she said, slamming "the embarrassing ex officio defence by the Prime Minister of the unacceptable words of Minister Valditara".
    "The equation between violence against women and immigration is not supported by data and only sows fear to support the government's abhorrent policies against migrants", also said Democratic Party (PD) Senator Valeria Valente.
    Valente noted how evidence showed that "in 84% of cases" men who were found guilty of gender-based violence "shared the same nationality as the victim".
    The leader of the progressive Più Europa opposition party Riccardo Magi also accused Meloni of repeating Valditara's "fake news" asking her to report to Parliament on the development of a project to fight gender-based violence in schools, announced in the wake of Giulia Cecchetin's murder.
    "Apart from saying banal xenophobic things, it's time for Meloni to do something concretely", said Magi.
    The murder a year ago of 22-year-old Cecchettin by her ex boyfriend shocked Italy, leading to the creation of the foundation in her name.
    Her ex, Filippo Turetta has admitted to stabbing Cecchettin to death at Fossò, near Venice, on November 11, 2023, days before she was due to graduate from Padua University in biomedical engineering.
    The case caused widespread dismay partly because of the brutality of the killing and also because of the young age of the perpetrator and victim.
    And speaking at the presentation of the campaign against gender-based violence ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women on November 25, Piantedosi also announced that a meeting would be held later on Tuesday at Palazzo Chigi to discuss the use of the electronic bracelet monitoring system to fight violence against women.
    "As of November 15 this year, 10,458 electronic bracelets are active, 4,677 against stalking.
    "Clearly, managing such a high number of bracelets is a major commitment for police forces", said the minister, highlighting "undeniable problems in the monitoring system". (ANSA).