(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 14 - Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said on Thursday that he agreed with President Sergio Mattarella's statement that Italy knows how to take care of itself regarding Elon Musk's position on the Italian judiciary.
    "I absolutely share the words of the president of the Republic" Sergio Mattarella, and "Musk's language doesn't belong to me", said Tajani.
    Mattarella spoke on Wednesday after Musk wrote on his platform X that the Rome judges who nixed the detention of migrants subjected to Italy's new policy of taking asylum seekers to be processed in Albania "needed to go".
    "We are a free, independent, democratic country, able to choose its destiny", noted the foreign minister.
    Tajani told ANSA, on the sidelines of a gathering of the Mutual assistance agency for Italian professionals (EMAPI) in Rome, that "a problem exists with a few magistrates who are using the judicial power to occupy spaces of the executive and legislative powers, and this is really unacceptable".
    He added that he believes "some politicized magistrates should make a profound reflection".
    Musk's representative in Italy, Andrea Stroppa, told Sky Tg24 on Thursday that the world's richest man was speaking as a private citizen, not a future United States government official.
    The Tesla, X and SpaceX owner Musk was appointed by US President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday to head a newly created government efficiency agency.
    "Musk's words are the outcome of an honest reflection concerning an issue;, he did not want to harm the sovereignty of our country", said Stroppa.
    "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". Asked whether Musk will be more cautious in the future, Stroppa replied: "I don't know.
    "He has 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.
    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" 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 (of Wednesday).
    "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 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. (ANSA).