'Musk spoke as private citizen' - Stroppa

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 14 - Elon Musk was speaking as a private citizen who had honest thoughts about a specific issue and did not want to affect Italy's sovereignty nor the dynamics of its institutions with his comments on the Italian judiciary, Musk's contact in Italy, Andrea Stroppa, told Sky Tg24 on Thursday.
    "Musk's words are the outcome of an honest thought concerning a theme, he did not want to harm the sovereignty of our country nor the dynamics", said Stroppa, after Musk said Rome judges who nixed the detention of migrants in Albania under the government's controversial policy of taking asylum seekers to be processed in the country "needed to go".
    "I believe it is right to remember that he spoke as a private citizen, as an entrepreneur and not as a figure of an administration that will take office in a few months", said Musk's man in Italy.
    The Tesla, X and SpaceX owner Musk, who was appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to head a newly created government efficiency agency, had written via X that "these judges need to go," on a user's post on the news of the suspension of the validation of the seven migrants' detention decided by the immigration section of the court of Rome on Monday.
    Asked whether Musk will be more cautious in the future, Stroppa replied: "I don't know.
    "He had problems with the Biden administration because he said what he thought.
    "If someone thinks he can be intimidated they haven't understood what he is like", he noted.
    And a statement provided to ANSA late Wednesday on behalf of the tycoon said Musk "hopes relations between the United States and Italy will be increasingly strong and hopes to meet soon the president of the Republic", Sergio Mattarella.
    "Entrepreneur Elon Musk expresses his respect for the President of the Republic Mattarella and for the Italian Constitution, as stressed in a friendly conversation with Premier (Giorgia) Meloni in the afternoon.
    "However, he stresses that the freedom of expression is protected by the First Amendment and by the Italian Constitution itself so, as a citizen, he will continue to freely express his opinions", said the statement.
    Mattarella on Wednesday said Italy knows how to take care of itself after Musk wrote on his platform X that Rome judges who nixed the detention of a second batch of migrants subjected to Italy's policy of taking asylum seekers to be processed in Albania "needed to go".
    "Italy is a great democratic country and I must reiterate that it knows how to take care of itself, while respecting its Constitution", the president said.
    The president on Wednesday went on to say that "anyone, particularly if, as announced," they are "about to undertake an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect sovereignty and cannot claim the role of imparting provisions".
    Sources at the prime minister's office on Wednesday said Premier Giorgia Meloni always listens to President Sergio Mattarella with great respect, after the head of State's words over the tycoon's on judges.
    "We always listen with great respect to the words of the President of the Republic", Meloni was quoted as saying by sources at Palazzo Chigi.
    Meanwhile on Thursday Stroppa, the Italian contact for Elon Musk's SpaceX, also commented on an Italian probe in which he is involved saying "justice must take its course".
    "I am under investigation and it is also an opportunity to be able to defend oneself, a magistrate must always be respected and it is necessary to ascertain facts", he noted, replying to a question over his involvement in a graft probe into tech company Sogei and the defence and interior ministries.
    Stroppa, who is suspected of receiving a confidential ministerial document from a suspect in exchange for benefits, is accused by the Rome prosecutor's office of complicity in corruption.
    He added that the probe was "difficult on a personal level but right, this is how it works in a democratic country". (ANSA).