Rome: The Italian Senate has voted by a large margin to allow the prosecution of right-wing opposition leader Matteo Salvini for forcing 131 rescued migrants to remain on a coast guard vessel for days when he was Italy's interior minister.

Salvini's fellow senators let stand a Senate commission's vote to lift his lawmaker's immunity so the Tribunal of Ministers can decide if he effectively held the migrants hostage last summer.

Opposition populist leader Matteo Salvini speaks at the end of the debate at the Italian Senate on whether to allow him to be prosecuted. He asked to have his immunity lifted. Credit:AP

The Senate vote fell 84 short of the number needed to overturn its commission's decision on Salvini's immunity last month. Salvini insisted during Wednesday's pre-vote debate that he would be proud to stand trial for defending Italy's borders, but senators from his anti-migrant League skipped the vote.

Once the tally was announced, he immediately compared himself to impeached US President Donald Trump, who has called the investigations during his presidency as the work of Democratic opponents and vindictive political enemies on the left.