(MENAFN) On Wednesday, Italy's Leader Sergio Mattarella strongly addressed Elon Musk's controversial remarks about Italian judges, reaffirming the nation's complete sovereignty and its ability to "look after itself."

Elon Musk, the world's richest man, who is poised to play a significant role in the new US administration under Donald Trump, on Tuesday sharply criticized a Rome court for preventing the detention of a second group of migrants in an Albanian detention center.

Musk commented on X, the social network that he, personally, owns, that “These judges need to go."

Musk's comments have been seen as attempts to gain favor with representatives of Giorgia Meloni's far-right government, while being condemned as an "unacceptable interference" by the center-left opposition.

Mattarella stated in a short statement that “Italy is a great democratic country and I must reiterate that it knows how to look after itself in compliance with its Constitution.”

He further noted, without mentioning Musk by name, that “Anyone, particularly if, as announced, about to take on an important government role in a friendly and allied country, must respect its sovereignty and cannot take on the task of giving it prescriptions.”

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