Italian President Sergio Mattarella's statement, issued on Wednesday (November 13), caused some surprise. While it did not explicitly name Musk, it was clearly targeted at the multi-billionaire owner of the social media platform X.

"Anyone – especially if they are preparing, as announced, to occupy an important role in the government of a friendly and allied country – must respect (that country’s) sovereignty and cannot make it his business to give lessons," said Mattarella’s message, which also appeared on his official X account.

The Italian president’s role is essentially ceremonial, but 83-year-old Mattarella is a moral authority in the country and consistently ranks in public opinion polls as Italy’s most respected leader.

His remarks came after Musk – who played a major role in the re-election of Donald Trump as US president – commented Tuesday on a ruling by a panel of Rome judges questioning the legality of the Italian government's intiative to outsource asylum processing to Albania of migrants from countries that are seen as 'safe'.

Following the ruling, seven people from Bangladesh and Egypt, who had been rescued in the Mediterranean and taken to Albania, were brought to Italy. A previous group of 12 asylum seekers were also transferred from Albania to Italy after a similar court decision in October.

Commenting on Monday’s Italian court decision on X, Musk wrote "These judges need to go." Later he asked if "the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?"

Ties with hardliners

Musk has close ties with the far-right Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who is behind the controversial migrant outsourcing plan, and Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, head of the anti-immigrant League party, who wrote on X on Tuesday "@elonmusk is right."

Salvini is the subject of a trial in Palermo in which he is accused of kidnapping 147 migrants by refusing to let them disembark from a Spanish NGO ship in Lampedusa five years ago, when he was interior minister.

A statement from Musk’s spokesperson to the news agency ANSA said the billionaire had spoken to Prime Minister Meloni and told her of his "respect" for President Mattarella.

"Nevertheless, he stresses that freedom of speech is protected by the first amendment to the Italian Constitution," the statement continued.

Read AlsoWhat is the Italy-Albania deal on migration?

War of words

It is not the first time Musk has commented publicly on migration issues. He weighed in during anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant riots in the UK in August, by posting claims that civil war was inevitable and criticizing the prime minister and British police.

In 2023 he slammed Germany’s policy of giving limited support to civil society organizations that rescue migrants from the Mediterranean.

This week, criticism from one of the charities, Sea-Watch, led Musk to call the organization "criminal" on his platform. The attack happened on the same day that Sea-Watch filed criminal charges against Italian authorities over the deaths of 21 migrants in a shipwreck on September 2.

Sea-Watch, which says its objective is to save lives on the world’s deadliest migration route, accused Musk of "baseless slander" and trying to discredit anyone standing up to "reckless anti-democratic rhetoric and policies."

"We work legally and transparently, driven by solidarity and the urge for justice in a world where billionaires like Musk deepend inequality and spread misinformation," a statement from Sea-Watch said.

The future of the migrant screening centers in Albania now depends on judges at the European Court of Justice, which has been asked specifically to rule on whether Italy can repatriate migrants to countries that it deems safe, such as Egypt, Tunisia and Bangladesh. It is expected to take months to release an opinion. 

Read AlsoItalian judges pose four questions to European court

With AFP, Reuters