Italy must not politicise the case of imprisoned anti-fascist Illaria Salis who is due to stand trial in Hungary next month for attacking several neo-Nazis in Budapest in February 2023, according to foreign minister Antonio Tajani.
"Turning the Salis case into a political affair will not help her get house arrest and her chances of an early return to Italy," Tajani told Il Foglio daily on Wednesday.
"If there's clash with (Viktor) Orban, everything will be more difficult," said Tajani, referring to Hungary's far-right populist premier.
"Let's dial down the rhetoric and let diplomacy quietly do its job...if leftist parliamentarians go to Hungary for the trial this will 'turn up the volume' and frankly will not help our work," Tajani said.
Tajani also stated his opposition to a centre-left proposal to nominate Salis as a Democratic Party (PD) candidate for the European parliamentary elections in June.
"These political initiatives rarely yield positive results and in fact risk stoking the confrontation with Hungary's authorities, which is not what we need right now," said Tajani.
At a hearing in Budapest last week, a court threw out a request by Salis' lawyer for her release to house arrest in Italy or Hungary, prompting her father to write to Italy's president Sergio Mattarella, asking for him to intervene and "get the government moving" over the case.
Matterella called Roberto Salis the following day to express his "personal closeness" to the family - a move praised by Tajani.
I hope that the head of state's words will serve to convince (Hungary) more than I and the prime minister (Giorgia Meloni) have," he said.
"We have done everything we could. Our embassy has done an extraordinary job," Tajani argued.
Italy has deplored of the handcuffing, shackling and chaining of Salis at a court hearing in late January and subsequently, Tajani recalled.
"It remains unacceptable for a detainee awaiting trial to be led into the courtroom handcuffed and with their feet in shackles. We have protested many times at this," Tajani underlined.
Orban told Meloni at a meeting in Brussels in February that Hungary's judiciary is independent and cannot be dictated to by the government or parliament. However, all of Salis' rights are being upheld, Orban alleged.
