Salvini on El Koudri: "He wrote wretched Christians, praised Allah"
Italian citizenship cannot be revoked from Salim El Koudri: current legislation does not permit it. The League attacks, FdI and FI distance themselves.
El Koudri's citizenship cannot be revoked: the rules do not allow it
According to ANSA Cronaca, Salim El Koudri's Italian citizenship cannot be revoked. Legal checks conducted within the government have confirmed that current legislation does not permit it in his specific case.
Current legislation provides for revocation only for those who acquired citizenship through marriage, naturalisation or election — by presidential decree, on the proposal of the Interior Ministry, within ten years of a final conviction for sentences exceeding five years for terrorism or subversion offences. El Koudri, 31 years old, born in the Bergamo area, became Italian in 2009 by right, pursuant to article 14 of Law 91 of 1992, when his Moroccan father was naturalised.
Salvini: "I feel worse that he is Italian"
Deputy Prime Minister and League leader Matteo Salvini reacted sharply. "If he goes around with a knife in his car, mows people down at 100 kilometres an hour in the centre of Modena and writes wretched Christians and praises Allah in Arabic on profiles closed down by Facebook — and it takes a lot of effort for Facebook to close profiles — evidently it is even more serious," Salvini declared. "In the sense that he was not a maladjusted person living under a bridge isolated from the rest of the world, but in fact a graduate."
On the fact that El Koudri is Italian, Salvini added: "I feel worse."
The League defines the Modena incident a "terrorist attack", denounces that "Europe is under siege from radical Islamism" and calls for stricter criteria for obtaining citizenship. A legislative proposal from the party provides for "revocation of citizenship from foreigners who commit serious crimes", presented by the League as a form of "legitimate defence".
FdI and FI distance themselves from the League's line
The League's tone finds no echo among its government allies. For Giovanni Donzelli of Brothers of Italy, "the current citizenship law has a good balance." The distance was also measured in the European Parliament: the assembly adopted the FdI-ECR proposal to include on the agenda a debate on "The attack against citizens in Modena: protecting public spaces and preventing violence in the EU", rejecting instead the original proposal from the League-Patriots, which asked Member States to "intensify action against internal Islamism and tighten the criteria for granting citizenship."
Forza Italia frames the matter differently. Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani, on a visit to Modena, described what happened as the action of "an Italian with psychiatric problems" and emphasised the mental health issue: "The government has put in place a structural strategy: 80 million in 2026, 85 in 2027, 90 in 2028, plus permanent funds from 2029 onwards."
Tajani: "Those who are not Italian and commit crimes must be expelled"
Tajani nonetheless drew a clear line: "Those who are not Italian citizens and commit crimes must be expelled, that is clear." As for the two foreigners who stopped El Koudri, the deputy prime minister stated that "they deserve recognition", leaving it to the Interior Ministry to assess any potential pathway to citizenship.
Internal divisions within the coalition intertwine with the upcoming administrative electoral deadlines. Within FdI there are those who suspect the League wants to avoid leaving the remigration flag to Vannacci's supporters.
Source: ANSA Cronaca