Milan appeal court annuls ruling against Ilaria Salis over ex-assistants' dismissal
The labour division of the Milan Court of Appeal declared the first-instance ruling null on Tuesday, 13 October, sending the case back to the Tribunal. The order for the MEP to pay over 300,000 euros to two former assistants was overturned.
The appeal ruling
The labour division of the Milan Court of Appeal declared null and void on Tuesday, 13 October, the first-instance ruling against Italian MEP Ilaria Salis (AVS). That ruling had ordered her to pay over 300,000 euros in compensation for the wrongful dismissal of two former assistants, Valentina Dadda and François Gelmetti, and the court overturned the related order. Adnkronos reports that the panel was presided over by Silvia Marina Ravazzoni and that the decision came the day after the hearing at which Salis's lawyers asked for the verdict to be annulled. The court upheld the petition on the failure to guarantee Salis her right to a fair hearing, and the decision was transmitted to the parties on Tuesday morning.
I welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal of Milan, which recognised the nullity of the first-instance ruling.
Why the March verdict was challenged
The first-instance ruling, issued in March, was reached in absentia. Salis's lawyers argued that it followed a defective notification, with only one attempt by a court bailiff despite a known residence and a known certified email address. They said this 'unaware absence' prevented Salis from raising the deterioration of the fiduciary relationship with the two former assistants, who had sued her. Salis said she had not been in a position to learn of the proceedings:
As I have maintained from the start, I was not placed in a position to learn of the proceedings and to exercise my right of defence.
She described the first-instance trial as having taken place in her 'total and blameless absence', a surreal situation. The case now returns to the Tribunal, which must rule again on the dismissal from the beginning.
Background to the case
Salis was released from house arrest in Hungary, where she was on trial for alleged involvement in an assault on far-right demonstrators in February 2023. She had been elected to the European Parliament for the Green-Left Alliance (AVS) in June 2024. Articles say the allegedly inhumane detention conditions during a 16-month spell in a Hungarian jail provoked protests in Italy. During the trial she was led into court on a chain with her ankles and wrists cuffed, a procedure Hungary says is standard but which caused widespread shock in Italy.
- Alleged assault on far-right demonstrators in Hungary, the subject of Salis's trial there
- Salis elected MEP for the Green-Left Alliance (AVS)
- First-instance ruling, issued in absentia, orders payment of over 300,000 euros
- Milan Court of Appeal declares the first-instance ruling null
Threats and next steps
Salis said she had received threats and pressure from the two former assistants, and a complaint on that front is not ruled out. Her lawyer Federico Manfredi, who works on the case with Chiara Romeo, had described the stakes before the ruling:
If the case is declared null, everything will be brought back to first instance.
With the first-instance judgment voided, the Tribunal must now decide the dismissal claim anew, and the order for compensation of about 300,000 euros no longer stands.
