This is what Ilaria Salis is accused of, but she says: “It wasn’t me”
Ilaria Salis has always denied having participated in the beating of two ultra-right militants in Budapest in February 2023: it is for this episode that she was arrested and has been detained ever since. After his election to the EU parliament, the video began to circulate again
BOLOGNA – Ilaria Salis’s election as MEP with Avs is causing a lot of discussion. Those who nominated her spoke of a victory for rights and of a battle that was first and foremost a “civic duty”. On the other hand, however, the accusations are harsh. La Russa said it was “a candidacy that is bad for democracy”. And even online, those who sympathize with the right, are pointing the finger at “a violent anti-fascist” who will sit on the benches of the European Parliament. But exactly what is Ilaria Salis accused of.
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The anti-fascist activist, who is originally from Monza and is a primary school teacher by profession, was arrested in Budapest on 11 February 2023 on charges of having attacked two neo-Nazis after the end of a demonstration. He has been in prison since that day. Her case became ‘famous’ when in the first hearing of the trial, on January 31st, she was brought into the courtroom handcuffed hand and foot. And even with another chain as a leash. This is the moment in which a real ‘battle’ began to bring Ilaria Salis home, tearing her away from prisoning conditions not considered worthy of a civilized country. In the woman’s letter, in fact, there was also mention of cockroaches and terrible hygiene.
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Why was she arrested in February 2023? And what was he doing in Budapest? The woman had gone to Budapest that day to take part in an anti-fascist counter-demonstration organized on the occasion of the ‘Day of Honour’, an event with which the ‘nostalgic’ commemorate the anniversary of when a Nazi battalion attempted to prevent the siege of Budapest by the Red Army in 1945. Ilaria Salis, when she was stopped, had a truncheon with her. The woman’s defense claims she had it with her for self-defense. But for the prosecution, that truncheon is one of the pieces of evidence of his participation in the aggression of two neo-Nazi militants (not seriously injured, with a prognosis of seven days). The video of the attack has been circulating online for some time, although in recent hours it has started to bounce from one profile to another together with the news of Salis’ election. The 39-year-old has always denied being among the attackers: in the video all the protagonists of the attack are wearing balaclavas, so no one is clearly recognisable. Regarding this video, her father Roberto also explained that his daughter doesn’t run like that, so he too is convinced it’s not her. In Italy, however, Ilaria Salis was acquitted for the alleged assault that occurred at a League gazebo in 2017. In recent months the episode was cited, erroneously, by Matteo Salvini as if a decision had not yet been reached part of the judge.
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