Salis, today the first verdict: on the line the EU Parliament's yes to immunity. She: 'I want to be tried in Italy'

Breathless breath and eyes on the Populars: for Ilaria Salis Tuesday 23 September is the day of the vote by the legal affairs committee of the Eurochamber on the request of revocation of her immunity by the Orban government, but there is still no clarity on the fate of the Avs MEP in Brussels. The vote will not be the final one: the final decision will be taken by the plenary, a step that will almost certainly take place in the first week of October (target="_self" href="https://www.ilsole24ore.com/art/il-parlamento-ue-vota-sull-immunita-ilaria-salis-ecco-perche-forza-italia-potrebbe-salvarla-AH4dTgjC">7 October), regardless of the outcome of the vote in committee. The plenary, however, traditionally confirms the committee's opinion, which is why the MEP knows she is playing a key game in the coming hours. Salis was detained in a Hungarian maximum security prison for almost a year (on charges of violence and injuries) from where she was released after her election to Strasbourg.

The numbers at the moment do not smile on her. In fact, 11 out of 25 MEPs have said they are ready to defend her immunity: they range from the Left (among them the Pentastellist Mario Furore) to the Greens, to the Liberals to the Socialists, including the Dem Brando Benifei. On the other hand, there are seven who will almost certainly vote for revocation: MEPs from the sovereignist groups Europe of Sovereign Nations and Patriots and the conservative Ecr, including Melonian Mario Mantovani.

The needle of the scales will therefore be the seven MEPs of the EPP, who on paper, at the moment, appear to be in favour of waiving immunity, as indicated by the very confidential report of the rapporteur of the text, the Spaniard Adrián Vázquez Lázara, also a popular. But it is precisely Vázquez Lázara's document that is opening a crack in the EPP, explain sources very close to the dossier, who stress that only two defections in the group would be enough to save Salis. In fact, it would be the presence in the text of a sentence indicating "the absence of fumus persecutionis" that has caused more than one perplexity among MEPs, especially after the tweet with the coordinates of a Hungarian prison spread by Viktor Orban's spokesman.

And it is precisely the Hungarian election campaign that complicates Salis' fate. In fact, the vote on the Avs MEP will be held at the same time as the one on the lifting of the immunity of the Hungarian People's MEP Péter Magyar, a former government exponent, now leader of the opposition and challenger, ahead in the polls, Orbán in view of the April elections. On the one hand, the EPP would like to support the two votes, thus giving a negative verdict on the state of the Hungarian judicial system and validating the thesis of political persecution. However, popular sources point out that some fear that if Magyar and Salis entrench themselves behind their immunity, Orbán could exploit the situation in favour of his Eurosceptic campaign.