Ilaria Salis | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Official portrait, 2024 | |
| Member of the European Parliament forNorth-West Italy | |
| Assumed office 16 July 2024 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1984-06-17)17 June 1984 (age 41) Milan, Italy |
| Political party | Greens and Left Alliance |
| Alma mater | University of Milan (BA), (MA) |
| Occupation | Teacher |
Ilaria Salis (born 17 June 1984) is an Italian politician, activist, writer and teacher. She was elected as aMember of the European Parliament in 2024 for theGreen and Left Alliance.
Salis was born on 17 June 1984 and grew up inMonza, Italy.[1] She received a undergraduate degree in history at theUniversity of Milan, graduating in December 2005.[1] After completing her undergraduate degree, she worked as a primary school teacher.[1] In 2021 she obtained aMaster's degree inphilology,literature and history of antiquity from the University of Milan.[1]
On 11 February 2023, Salis was arrested in Hungary, after alleged assaults on neo-Nazis at afar-right event inBudapest.[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 and the alleged victims of the attacks did not file reports with police.[3][4]
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 theProgressive 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, shortly before the European elections, she was released from prison and transferred tohouse arrest in Budapest.[4][7]
In June 2024, Salis was elected as aMember of the European Parliament (MEP) for theGreen and Left Alliance, obtaining more than 170,000 votes.[8][3] As a MEP, she gainedlegal 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 October 2024, Hungarian prosecutors requested that the European Parliament lift her immunity.[10] The European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee rejected the request in September 2025, stating that she would not get a fair trial.[10]
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 weeklyInternazionale,[11] followed by other update strips in the following issues.[12][13] In the following June, Zerocalcare's comics on the Salis case were collected and published together with some unpublished ones in the volumeThis night will not be short.[14]
The European Parliament's Legal Affairs Committee (JURI) voted Tuesday against lifting the immunity of left-wing Italian MEP Ilaria Salis, arguing that she would not get a fair trial in Viktor Orbán's Hungary. ... In June 2024, Salis was released from custody in Budapest after winning a seat in the Parliament with Italy's Greens and Left Alliance, which granted her parliamentary immunity. But in October last year, Hungarian prosecutors asked the Parliament to lift that immunity.