Magistrates can't work with serenity says union chief

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 1 - The Italian judiciary is unable to work with serenity because of repeated claims from members of the ruling coalition that some of its decisions are politically motivated, Giuseppe Santalucia, the president of magistrates union ANM, said on Friday.
    Santalucia singled out Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini for criticism after the minister hit out at a Bologna court's decision to refer a new government decree defining a list of safe countries for repatriation to the European Court of Justice.
    "On Monday I will be in Bologna for an extraordinary assembly, which testifies the climate of unease about this way of doing politics, about the media close to the current governing majority, which stops magistrates from working in serenity," Santalucia told La7 television.
    "You cannot do anything without getting labelled afterwards as being politicized magistrates.
    "You make a decision that is not liked and you become a 'Red'.
    "This is unacceptable".
    The Bologna court's referral to ask which parameter should be used when determining safety and whether the principle of the primacy of EU law should prevail if a conflict arises with Italian legislation was issued in relation to an appeal presented by an asylum seeker from Bangladesh.
    The government decree listing 19 countries, including Bangladesh, as safe, said Italian courts cannot rule against it on the basis of an October 4 European Court of Justice sentence based on which Rome judges nixed the detention of a group of migrants at a new Italian-run centre in Albania last month.
    "I ask Minister Salvini what is inappropriate about a measure that asks the EU court of justice for a ruling on compliance," Santalucia said. (ANSA).