Italy's president criticises Elon Musk for interfering in migration row

Italy's President Sergio Mattarella has told Elon Musk to stop interfering in the country's politics, after the tech billionaire criticised an Italian court for blocking the transfer of migrants to detention centres in Albania built through a controversial immigration deal.

Musk, who has been picked to jointly lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency" by US President-elect Donald Trump in his incoming administration, wrote on Tuesday on X that "these judges need to go".

He was referring to judges in Rome who had ruled against Italian PM Giorgia Meloni's initiative to outsource the processing and detention of some asylum seekers to Albania.

In a later post, the Tesla owner wrote: "This is unacceptable. Do the people of Italy live in a democracy or does an unelected autocracy make the decisions?”

In an unusual statement, which did not name Musk but was clearly referring to him, Mattarella said Italy "knows how to take care of itself while respecting its Constitution."

"Anyone, especially if, as announced, they are about to take on an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot take on the task of issuing prescriptions," Mattarella said on Wednesday.

In response, an Italian representative of X, Andrea Stroppa, said that Musk respected Mattarella and Italy's constitution, but that he intended to continue to "freely express his opinions".

Meloni has not commented on Musk's posts, but Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini — who is part of the ruling, anti-immigration Brothers of Italy party — said Musk was "right" in a post on X.

Meloni's deal hits a roadblock

Seven people were returned to Italy this week, after a court in Rome refused a formal request to detain them in Albania.

The migrants were first sent to Albania as part of a five-year agreement between Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama, under which Italy will operate two processing centres in Albania that would determine whether individuals were eligible for asylum.

Judges in the Rome court referred to cases in the EU Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg which decided that no "country of origin" could be considered safe even if it was in part dangerous.

Italy had designated Egypt and Bangladesh as "safe" countries. Yet under the ruling, Rome faces a challenge repatriating migrants from Albania to those two nations.

The Rome court argued that no migrants should be sent to the Balkan country until more clarity was provided by the ECJ, meaning that the two small groups of people who were sent to Albania were returned to Italy.

On Wednesday, an ECJ official said that its ruling could take weeks or months to clarify whether Italy could legally repatriate migrants to countries it deems safe.

The court's ruling is a major setback for the scheme, which was touted by Meloni as an effective way to stem the flow of irregular migration into Italy and was eyed as an attractive policy by several other European countries.

The Brothers of Italy party, which promoted and executed the scheme, expressed outrage over the court's decision — with Salvini accusing the magistrates of "endangering the safety and wallets of Italians."