Saviano attacks Salvini: 'You are the minister of crime'

Matteo Salvini is upping the ante in his war of words with Roberto Saviano, who has called him "the minister of cruelty," suggesting he should consider renewing his security detail and verifying "whether he faces any risk" given that "he spends a lot of time abroad." The author of 'Gomorra' responds harshly on Facebook: "Buffoon, he is the minister of the underworld, but he doesn't scare me." And Saviano accuses the Minister of the Interior of being silent on the 'ndrangheta and asks him to "return the 50 million from the mega-fraud of the League's electoral reimbursements". The left defends the writer, accuses Salvini of “retaliation” for the criticisms. The case also ends up in the foreign media due to Saviano's notoriety. On his behalf, "the competent institutions will evaluate whether he runs any risk," says Salvini, "it seems to me that he spends a lot of time abroad. They will evaluate how Italians' money is spent." And he sends him “a kiss”. He then specifies that "all the surveillance services" will be reviewed, "there are almost 600 of them and they employ around two thousand men from the police force". The challenge between the anti-Camorra symbol and the leader of the League, which has been going on for years, is at a white-hot temperature after Salvini's arrival at the Viminale and his actions and words on migrants and Roma. “He takes it out on the last, I'm happy to be among his enemies,” says Saviano. “This government has already caused too much harm. An irreparable evil,” he writes in the French daily Le Monde, “we cannot give him any respite, we must make him regret the day when, out of selfishness, interest and wickedness, he decided that in order to exist he had to become racist.” Then on Facebook he accuses Salvini, also elected in Calabria, of not having said anything "like a coward" against the 'ndrangheta, which he says was present at his opponent's rallies. And in the evening comes the position taken by the President of the Chamber Roberto Fico: "Those who fight the mafia must be protected" writes the Five Star exponent on Facebook, siding with the writer. After the warning about the escort, the minister clarifies that it is not up to him to decide, much less on the basis of "likes and dislikes" and that the issue "is the least of my problems". So more controversial words: “Anti-mafia in words is one thing, I prefer to support those who fight the mafia in practice. I care less than zero about Saviano, his house in New York, his life and his money." The entire centre-left sides with Saviano. Pietro Grasso, leader of Leu and former anti-mafia magistrate, claims that Salvini "wants to make Saviano understand not to criticize him, to keep quiet, otherwise he can intervene to leave him without protection". “Salvini threatens and raises his voice because he doesn’t know what he’s talking about,” tweeted the PD group leader in the Chamber and former minister Graziano Delrio. Take away my escort but leave it to Roberto Saviano." The Greens ask Salvini to resign, the radical Roberto Magi sees him as "unfit to be a minister". With Saviano, among others, there were also Federica Angeli, a reporter under escort, the journalists' union Fnsi and the son of Daphne Caruana Galizia, a murdered Maltese journalist, who spoke of a "death threat" and recalled that his mother was denied protection. "Those who hold institutional positions," prosecutor Nino Di Matteo warned on Tg1, "should be well-versed in the mafia mentality so as to avoid certain statements being interpreted as a sign of weakening."