ROME—The head of Italy’s most popular political party, Sen. Matteo Salvini, has been stripped of legal immunity and faces criminal trial for allegedly kidnapping migrants, offering him a risky platform to portray himself to voters as a persecuted defender of Italy against illegal immigration.

Italian prosecutors accuse Mr. Salvini of abusing his powers and kidnapping 131 asylum seekers in July, when as interior minister he refused to let the migrants disembark from an Italian Coast Guard ship that had rescued them in the Mediterranean. The Italian Senate voted on Wednesday to strip him of the legal immunity that he is granted as a member of the chamber.

If found guilty, Mr. Salvini could face up to 15 years in jail and a ban on holding elected office, potentially wrecking his ambitions to become prime minister.

A passenger disembarked in Augusta, Italy from a Coast Guard vessel on July 31, 2019. Matteo Salvini, then interior minister, had earlier barred rescued migrants from getting off the ship. Photo: antonio parrinello/Reuters

Mr. Salvini said on Wednesday that he welcomed being put on trial. “I want someone to clarify once and for all if defending the borders is a political duty or a criminal act,” he told the Senate before the vote that granted his wish. “Let’s have a judge decide whether I am a criminal or I defended my country.”

Mr. Salvini has turned a northern Italian secessionist movement, the League, into a pan-Italian nationalist party focused on immigration and law-and-order. The nativist League has become Italy’s most popular political party in the past two years, with voter support rising to over 30% in opinion polls. Surveys suggest that if Italy held elections now, the League would win a majority together with far-right allies.


Mr. Salvini has also suffered setbacks. In the summer of 2019, he tried to force snap elections by pulling out of Italy’s government, in which the League was the junior partner of the antiestablishment 5 Star Movement. Instead, a new coalition government emerged, excluding the League.

Mr. Salvini, now opposition leader, has been using regional election campaigns to press for national elections. But defeat in January in the northern region of Emilia-Romagna showed that Mr. Salvini’s anti-immigration rhetoric was provoking a backlash among Italian voters who want to defend the country’s mostly moderate, compromise-based political culture.

Mr. Salvini has since toned down his far-right rhetoric and reached out more to moderate conservatives. He unexpectedly didn’t turn up to an international gathering of far-right leaders and activists in Rome last week, where he was expected to give a keynote speech. His office said there was a scheduling conflict.

In December, an Italian court recommended that Mr. Salvini face trial for his order to detain the 131 migrants on the Coast Guard ship. The migrants were eventually allowed to disembark in Sicily. Most were sent to other European Union countries, while the rest remained in Italy.

Mr. Salvini’s tough stance against seaborne migration across the Mediterranean has included repeated refusals to allow ships that had rescued asylum seekers to dock in Italy. The tactic boosted his popularity with Italian voters fed up with years of poorly controlled immigration.


But some prosecutors viewed the refusals as an abuse of ministerial powers. Mr. Salvini has argued that he was protecting the country against illegal immigration and that the entire government approved.

As a senator, Mr. Salvini would have immunity from prosecution unless the chamber votes to lift it. On Wednesday his political rivals rejected his claim that he was defending Italy.

“Do we really want to accept that? That the Italian Republic risked being invaded by an Italian Coast Guard ship? Give me a break,” said Sen. Emma Bonino of the centrist More Europe party.

The start date and length of the trial haven’t been established. Italian criminal trials can take years, and defendants can appeal as far as Italy’s highest court.


The merits of the legal case are also unclear, legal scholars said.

“It’s a proceeding whose outcome is completely open,” said Roberto Bartoli, a professor of criminal law at the University of Florence.

If Mr. Salvini is convicted in his first trail, Parliament could suspend him from holding high public office for up to 18 months. If a conviction is upheld on appeal, a multiyear ban on public office is also possible.

The number of seaborne migrants landing in Italy has slowed to a trickle, after years of efforts by Italian governments of all parties to stem the migration trail through Africa to the coast of Libya. But Mr. Salvini has kept the issue of immigration at the center of Italy’s political debate.


Write to Giovanni Legorano at giovanni.legorano@wsj.com