Matteo salvinin Italy’s far-right interior minister, has threatened to remove the police protection of one of the country’s most famous writers, Roberto Saviano, who has been under threat from organised crime since his breakthrough success about the mafia, Gomorrah, was published in 2006.
Saviano is one of Salvini’s toughest critics and is a constant fixture on Italian media. He is one of hundreds of journalists and writers who are under constant guard in Italy, because of current or previous threats to their safety by the mafia.
Speaking in an interview on Rai Tre on Thursday morning, Salvini suggested it was time to review spending on Saviano’s police escort as part of an evaluation of how “Italians spend their money”. He pointed to the fact that Saviano spends time abroad, and that the seriousness of the threat against him had to be considered.
“Roberto Saviano is the last of my problems. I’ll send him a kiss if he is watching now. He is a person who provokes so much tenderness and affection, but it is right to evaluate how Italians spend their money,” Salvini said.
Earlier this week Saviano wrote a piece for the Guardian in which he said Italy’s war on migrants had made him fear for the future of his country.
