Untangled the article:

Meloni (…) said Rome should “repatriate migrants and sink the boats that rescued them”

[Saviano] was asked on the political TV chatshow Piazzapulita in 2020 for a comment on the death of a six-month-old baby from Guinea after a shipwreck in the central Mediterranean.

Including in his remarks the leader of the far-right Northern League, Matteo Salvini, who as interior minister introduced a decree imposing fines of up to €50,000 (£44,000) on NGO rescue boats bringing people to Italy, Saviano said: “I just want to say to Meloni, and Salvini, you bastards! How could you?”

Saviano, who lives under police escort and has been in hiding from the Neapolitan mafia, the Camorra, since 2006 after being threatened by mobsters following publication of his book Gomorrah. He faces up to three years in prison if convicted.

In a previous interview with the Guardian, Saviano, who has repeatedly criticised the treatment of migrants in Italy, said: “If I am sentenced, I will respond to my words, but I will never regret having lost my peace of mind and perhaps even many readers for defending the voiceless.”

Meloni’s lawyer, Luca Libra, said her legal team was evaluating whether to withdraw the lawsuit. “The lawsuit arises from the hatred used,” said Libra. “I taught my son that the word “bastard” is an offence. We will still evaluate whether or not to withdraw it.”

“I’m sick of witnessing this disgusting profiteering by Saviano,” Meloni replied after Saviano’s TV appearance. “Is it normal that this serial hater is allowed to defame, without the right to reply, people who are not present on the talkshow? I have already asked my lawyers to proceed with a legal action against him.”