Italian Member of the European Parliament Ilaria Salis has been held liable for the unlawful dismissal of two former parliamentary assistants and ordered to pay more than €300,000 in damages. The ruling, issued by the labour section of the Milan court and filed on March 10, 2026, found that Salis had failed to provide sufficient legal grounds for terminating the contracts of the two staff members before their expected end date.
The judgment became public only on July 22, 2026, after it was published without identifying references in a legal journal, Italian news agency ANSA reported.
The ruling has generated political debate in Italy because Salis, 42, is one of the country’s most controversial political figures. A former teacher turned politician, she has a history of criminal proceedings and convictions related to her activities in the anti-fascist movement before her election. She also became internationally known after being arrested in Hungary in 2023 over allegations that she took part in attacks against suspected right-wing activists in Budapest, allegations she has consistently denied.
The case concerns two assistants who worked for Salis after she was elected to the European Parliament in 2024. Like other MEPs, Salis was entitled to hire parliamentary staff to support her political work.
The dispute began when Salis dismissed the two assistants before the conclusion of their contracts in 2025, only a few months after they had joined her European Parliament team. The two employees had previously worked on Salis’ European election campaign while she was still detained in Hungary.
Their contracts were expected to run until the end of her parliamentary mandate on July 16, 2029. According to the ruling, they were revoked by letter with immediate effect and without notice on the grounds that the relationship of trust had broken down, one letter citing a situation of environmental and personal incompatibility and the other work considered unsatisfactory.
The two former assistants challenged the dismissals before the Milan labour court, arguing that their contracts had been terminated without lawful justification. The court agreed, finding that the reasons presented by Salis were insufficient.
Judge Franco Caroleo held that the burden of proving just cause lay with the employer and that Salis had not met it, because she did not enter an appearance and the case proceeded in her absence. Compensation was calculated on the pay the two would have received until their contracts expired, on monthly salaries of €2,900 and €3,000.
Salis has rejected the ruling and said she has already appealed, arguing that the decision to terminate the contracts was necessary to ensure the proper functioning of her parliamentary office. She described the case as a surreal affair, said she had been unable to defend herself at first instance and stated that she received no notification when the proceedings began.
Right-wing politicians called for her resignation. Fabio Rampelli, a deputy speaker of the Chamber of Deputies for Brothers of Italy, said dismissing collaborators without just cause was a mean act.
Salis entered the European Parliament in 2024 after being elected with the Greens and Left Alliance (Alleanza Verdi e Sinistra, AVS). She sits with The Left group and joined Sinistra Italiana, one of the two parties in the alliance, in June 2026.
Italian media have reported four previous convictions, for offences including resisting a public official during an eviction and occupying buildings.
Salis has also been involved in a long-running dispute over public housing in Milan. Italian newspapers reported unpaid charges of around €90,000 linked to a flat occupied in 2008, a figure regional housing authority Aler has not confirmed and which her lawyers dispute.
Her international profile grew after her arrest in Budapest on February 11, 2023, when she was detained on the sidelines of the “Day of Honour” demonstration, an annual gathering that commemorates the German and Hungarian soldiers who, in 1945, attempted to break the Soviet siege of Budapest during the Second World War.
Hungarian prosecutors accused her of taking part in coordinated assaults on people identified as right-wing activists, in which victims were struck with batons and other blunt objects.
She spent about 15 months in pre-trial detention and appeared in court in handcuffs and leg shackles, prompting criticism from the Italian Government and European institutions. She was moved to house arrest in May 2024 and, after her election to the European Parliament the following month, the restrictions were lifted and she returned to Italy.
The Milan ruling is separate from the Hungarian proceedings. It does not concern criminal allegations but rather Salis’ responsibilities as an employer and whether the dismissal of two parliamentary assistants complied with Italian labour law.
The ruling is not final. Salis has appealed, meaning the legal dispute will continue through the next stages of the judicial process.
