'Meloni's faith in judges expressed at Pinelli meeting'

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 6 - Premier Giorgia Meloni has faith in magistrates, sources in the judiciary's self-governing body, the Supreme Council of Magistrates (CSM), said on Wednesday after a meeting between CSM Vice-President Fabio Pinelli and the prime minister was criticized by members of the opposition and of the judiciary.
    The meeting on Monday, revealed that "the prime minister has confidence in the judiciary and is in no way interested in controversies", the sources said.
    Pinelli on Wednesday said he was available to meet with the magistrate members of the self-governing body to discuss the meeting.
    The talks were slammed as "inappropriate" by members of the opposition, including Democratic Party (PD) lawmaker and former justice minister Andrea Orlando who said meetings between government members and the vice-president of CSM "are such common practice that a right-wing newspaper, to deny my claim, has cited as many as two precedents, one in 2006 and another in the 1980s - in both cases in quite a different climate regarding the relationship between the government and CSM".
    Justice Minister Carlo Nordio on Wednesday said it was perfectly normal for such a meeting to take place.
    Such talks "do not violate any practice or State law", the justice minister said.
    Thirteen out of the 20 magistrate members of CSM, with the exclusion of the seven members of the conservative Magistratura Indipendente (MI), have asked Pinelli to report on the meeting in a note stressing that it took place at a particularly delicate time in the relationship between members of the government and the judiciary.
    The majority of the magistrate members of the CSM voted to request to open a special procedure to protect the independence and autonomy of judges twice last month, once for magistrates in Bologna who were under heavy fire for referring a government measure on migrants to the European Court of Justice and a similar request for Rome judges who ruled against holding migrants at a new migrant centre Italy has opened in Albania.
    (ANSA).