Silvia Albano (judge)

Silvia Albano is an Italian judge who is also the president of the left-wing judicial faction Magistratura democratica [it]. She ran, unsuccessfully, to be head of the Associazione Nazionale Magistrati [it] in 2020.^[1] She is notable for making many pro-migrant decisions resulting in fights with the national government.

2024 pro-migrant decision

In 2023, Albano drew attention for expressing support for illegal migrants against the democratically elected Giorgia Meloni government's efforts to move processing offshore to enforce Italian laws.^[2][3] She previously, in 2019, battled then-interior minister Matteo Salvini who described her as having "pro-migrant sympathies".^[4] She had also, in 2021, ruled against the government's policy of pushing illegal migrants back to Slovenia prior to being admitted in Italy.^[5]

She gained notoriety in 2024 for her decision against the Italian government's offshore detention of illegal migrants in Albania which was heavily criticized.^[6] In response, she declared she is not a "communist judge".^[7] She also filed a police complaint and was given additional protection following death threats.^[8] Conservative politicians declared that she should have abstained from the decision given her history of left-wing activism and donations.^[9] She has come under attack from Meloni and Matteo Salvini who described her as a political judge for the left-wing Partito Democratico and called for her resignation.^[10][11]

Personal life

Albano is from Padua in Veneto but has long lived in Lazio.^[12]