Salis case, the anger of Ilaria's father after the meeting with ministers Tajani and Nordio: “Only not from the government, he will remain in cell. We were left alone.”

There is no point in deluding oneself, there are no easy or miraculous solutions for the case of Ilaria Salis. This time the ministers Carlo Nordio and Antonio Tajani told the young prisoner's father, without mincing words. And the man, understandably, was crushed. «We were left alone – he says dejectedly, at the end of the Roman meetings -. We asked for two things: house arrest in Italy or alternatively in the embassy in Hungary, and both were denied. I believe that my daughter will remain in prison for a long time and we will still see her in chains at the trials.”

And in the meantime the issue becomes political. A debate is held in the European Parliament on the Salis case which inevitably brings the Hungary of handcuffs and leashes to the dock; according to the Commissioner for Financial Services, Mairead McGuinness, there is “the possibility of alternative detention, including house arrest”. It is expected from 2019, after the Finnish presidency. «This measure would be in line with the conclusions of the EU Council on alternative measures to detention». And she concludes, threateningly: “There could be infringement procedures if EU law on the case is violated.” But Hungary took the debate very badly. Orbanian parliamentarian Enyko Gyori argued that the “debate on the case violates European values, Hungary is seriously accused and I am not granted the right to intervene. The European Parliament is taking on the role of a Tribunal and is not giving the accused the floor. I wonder what kind of procedure this is, while the basic situation is that an Italian citizen was arrested in Budapest for having brutally attacked Hungarian citizens, together with others, randomly selecting their victims based on their clothing.”

In Italy the back-and-forth between Elly Schlein and Giorgia Meloni goes on all day. The secretary of the Democratic Party, in the Press, had argued with Nordio and Meloni, speaking of “a serious delay by the government”. From Japan, the prime minister replied very piquedly: «I don't know what Elly Schlein means in terms of a serious delay by the government. If she is better than us, she will surely know what to do.” Which entails a counter-response from Schlein, who flew to Strasbourg to follow the plenary of the European Parliament: «I don't know if we are better. But I know that for months and months there have been parliamentary documents filed by the Democratic Party and the opposition asking the government to intervene to protect Ilaria Salis, detained in inhumane conditions in Hungary. I know that the government spoke about it only after the world saw the leash and chains, and that until now it has done little or nothing to protect the rights and dignity of an Italian citizen, and to bring her back to Italy. I know that the Meloni government remained silent on the matter for months so as not to offend its friend and ally Orban.”

The wait-and-see and diplomacy line has prevailed in the government, also because there is the fear of making false steps, which would irritate Hungary's susceptibilities even more. But for Roberto Salis, this means that «the Italian State does not intend to do anything… it all depends on the Hungarian judge… and it believes that it does not want to provide documents that we had requested to facilitate the work of our lawyers, because they say that it would be irregular and that it could create precedents. On the note that would have provided guarantees on the application of house arrest measures in Italy, they believe that it would be shown by the Italian State as an excusatio non petita”.

And in short, the meetings went “much worse than we expected, we don't see any action that could alleviate my daughter's situation”.

Even the “clarification” document by the Italian government, which should have clarified to the Hungarian counterpart how house arrest is carried out here, has been postponed to better times. Perhaps when we reach the stage in which she will hopefully be granted house arrest in Hungary and there will be an attempt to transfer the measure to Italy.

As the Deputy Minister of Justice, Francesco Paolo Sisto, says for example: «We cannot interfere in the judicial system of another country for crimes committed by one of our citizens on the soil of that country. This applies to Italy towards Hungary, but obviously the opposite would also apply. For Ilaria Salis we have the obligation to push for dialogue and collaboration so that she can obtain a house arrest order in Hungary and then take her to Italy.” And Minister Tajani explains: «We continue to work hard to ensure that community legislation on the rights of prisoners can be respected». But this is precisely what Ilaria Salis's family and lawyers did not want.

Meanwhile, accusations from French MEP of the Rassemblement National Jean-Lin Lacapelle arrive on Salis, speaking in plenary in Strasbourg. «I will remember what the facts are, so that Europeans know which criminal the European Parliament takes the side of. Ilaria Salis is an Italian anti-fascist, motivated by an ultraviolent far-left ideology, who has claimed the right to enter a foreign country in Hungary and impose her political law, attacking Hungarian nationalists by surprise on the street or in house with hammer blows and eight against one.” «If the opposite had happened – he continues – if nationalists had crossed the borders to attack left-wing activists, at home, with hammers, the entire European Union would cry out for death. But since it is the far left that attacks nationalists, the European Union is concerned about the health and comfort of the attacker, without saying a word for the victims,” she concludes.