In recent months, he has frequently mentioned the trial and the upcoming verdict in social media posts, public appearances and interviews.
“I want to believe that Italy is a normal country and in a normal country whoever defends the borders is not found guilty,” he told Italian media earlier this week. If that were the case, he said, “it would be terrible news for the country and cause for celebration for people smugglers and enemies of Italy.”
He also claimed that Italy’s judicial system was “politicized” and that some magistrates were “obviously left-wing.”
Ellie Schlein, leader of the center-left opposition Democratic Party, accused Salvini of “spreading propaganda and fomenting a serious institutional clash.”
The three female prosecutors in the case have been under police protection since September after online harassment and threats.
Members of Salvini’s Lega party have gathered around him and are preparing demonstrations in his support.
On Wednesday, Lega MEPs appeared at a session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg wearing T-shirts reading “Guilty to defend Italy” – a slogan Salvini has used in the past.
“A condemnation would be an incredibly serious matter,” Lega deputy secretary Andrea Crippa said: “It would be like a condemnation of the entire Italian people, the Italian parliament and the elected government.”
The president of the League party in Lombardy, Attilio Fontana, said a guilty verdict would be “so abnormal, even from a judicial point of view, that I don’t even want to think about it.”
Others outside Italy also entered the discussion.
“This crazy prosecutor should be the one to go to jail for six years,” Elon Musk tweeted, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a close ally of Salvini, called the trial “disgraceful.”
If found guilty, Salvini said he would appeal the verdict “all the way to the Supreme Court of Cassation,” Italy’s highest court.
This process could take months, and it will not affect Salvini’s position in the government and parliament.
