Italian politician and activist
Ilaria Salis (born 17 June 1984) is an Italian politician, activist, and teacher. She was elected as a Member of the European Parliament in 2024 for the Green and Left Alliance.
Personal life
Salis was born on 17 June 1984 and grew up in Monza, Italy.[1] She received a undergraduate degree in history at the University of Milan, graduating in December 2005.[1] After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked as a primary school teacher.[1] In 2021 she obtained a Master's degree in philology, literature and history of antiquity from the University of Milan.[1]
Arrest and detention
On 11 February 2023, Salis was arrested in Hungary, after alleged assaults on neo-Nazis at a far-right event in Budapest.[2][3]
She was charged with three counts of attempted assault and accused of being part of an extreme left-wing organization.[4] She denied the charges[4] and the alleged victims of the attacks reportedly did not file reports with police.[3]
Amid rising public outrage in her home country, the Italian government protested the shackling of Salis with chains around her hand and feet for her trial appearance.[4][5] On 19 December 2023, seven Italian MEPs with the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats accused the Hungarian government of holding her "bound by the neck in a cell with mice and cockroaches" and argued that the "injuries of the two assaulted individuals who reported her were only minor".[6] Salis wrote that she spent "23 hours out of 24 in a completely closed cell".[4]
In May 2024, she was released from prison and transferred to house arrest in Budapest.[4][7]
Election to the European Parliament
In June 2024, Salis was elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the Green and Left Alliance, obtaining more than 170,000 votes.[8][3] As a MEP, she gained legal immunity and was released from house arrest, finally returning to Italy.[3]
She plans to leverage her role to advocate for the rights of incarcerated individuals, address the housing shortage, and tackle the issue of excessive rental costs.[9]
In popular culture
In January 2024, Zerocalcare dedicated to Ilaria Salis his graphic novel At the bottom of the well. A story of Nazis, prison and responsibility, initially published in the weekly Internazionale,[10] followed by other update strips in the following issues.[11][12] In the following June, Zerocalcare's comics on the Salis case were collected and published together with some unpublished ones in the volume This night will not be short.[13]
References
