Two years on, still no justice for Italian MEP Ilaria Salis’s Budapest victims
Two years have passed since antifa activist Ilaria Salis and her associates brutally assaulted innocent pedestrians on the streets of Budapest, yet her victims have still not received justice, the state secretary for international communication and relations said on Facebook on Sunday.
The Hungarian authorities acted swiftly, arresting Salis and charging her with organised assault, Zoltán Kovács said in his post in which he also shared video footage of the attacks. But, he added, law enforcement had run into “political obstacles”, arguing that rather than being brought to justice for her actions, Salis “hid behind her immunity as an MEP” and Brussels had provided her with political protection. Salis’s election as an MEP, Kovács said, had allowed her to “sidestep the Hungarian justice system” despite prosecutors having sought an 11-year prison sentence for her.
“Ilaria Salis is not a hero, she is not facing political persecution, she is not a martyr, but a violent extremist who assaulted defenceless people on the streets of Budapest,” the state secretary said. Yet, he added, foreign political and media campaigns were working to “whitewash” Salis while keeping silent on the suffering of her victims.
Kovács said there had already been misinformation surrounding the case before Salis became an MEP, noting that her father had claimed that she had been denied her right to vote while in custody, despite the fact that all inmates had voting rights under Hungarian law. “The Hungarian authorities categorically debunked these claims, but this did not stop the international media from pushing a fabricated story to fit their preferred narrative,” he added.
Kovács also said that the Hungarian courts had ruled that Salis could not be placed under house arrest in Italy because she was a flight risk. Yet Italian politicians and the media had demanded that she be handed over to Italy, implying Hungary was incapable of conducting a fair trial.
But the real victims, the state secretary said, were the Hungarian and foreign citizens who were attacked by Salis and her accomplices. “Their suffering has been ignored by the left-liberal press and politicians while they defend a violent extremist,” he said. “The message being sent is clear: If you have the right ideological backing, you can get away with anything — even violence,” Kovács said. “Hungary doesn’t forget. Justice cannot be erased. The victims deserve justice,” he added.
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