State attorney's remark on Meloni 'grave' says Nordio

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 23 - Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday said an internal email written by Cassation Court State Attorney Marco Patarnello in which he called Premier Giorgia Meloni "dangerous" over her plans to reform the judiciary was surprising as well as painful for him as a former magistrate and that he was evaluating sending inspectors in.
    "Stating that the prime minister, because she has no pending investigations, is a greater danger than (late premier Silvio) Berlusconi" and therefore "'we have to correct this" are sentences of such gravity they must be taken into consideration", said Nordio, during question time at the Lower House.
    He said the case was being examined to evaluate the possible involvement of inspectors.
    Patarnello said in the internal email of the judiciary's union, the National Association of Magistrates (ANM), that Meloni was more dangerous than Berlusconi, who battled the judiciary for years through a string of legal woes, because she did not have any cases pending for herself.
    But he ended the email by saying that magistrates should not engage in politics but rather do their jobs as best they could while defending their independence and autonomy.
    Several ministers accused the judiciary of pursuing an anti-government agenda after the publication by conservative daily Il Tempo of part of the e-mail from Patarnello, a leading member of the leftwing Democratic Magistrature faction of the judiciary, which is politicised.
    Meloni also posted the extract on her social media accounts.
    (ANSA).