I voiced a concern, not an attack says Crosetto

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 27 - Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said on Monday that his remarks on the judiciary in an interview on Sunday had not been an attack but rather an expression of concern.
    "An answer (to a question, ed. ) at the end of an interview about something else. An answer in which I recount something that had been reported to me. A concern, not an attack," said Crosetto on X, formerly Twitter, referring to the assertion that "the only major danger (facing Premier Giorgia Meloni's government, ed.) is from those who have always felt they are an antagonistic faction and have always undermined centre-right governments - judicial opposition".
    "I say I want to report to Parliament. I am attacked, insulted, threatened, offended. Preemptively. Should I be afraid? I am not," added Crosetto.
    In the interview published by Corriere della Sera on Sunday the defence minister is reported as saying he had "heard about meetings of a faction within the judiciary in which they talk about how to 'stop the anti-democratic drift Meloni is leading us to'".
    "Since we have seen all sorts of things in the past, if I know this country, I expect this season to open soon, before the European Elections," he continued.
    Crosetto's interview sparked an angry reaction from Italian magistrates union ANM and opposition leaders, with ex-premier and 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte saying his words amounted to accusing part of the judiciary of being 'subversive'.
    Later on Sunday the minister said he was "astonished" by the reaction to the interview.
    "First of all, because I have done everything but threaten or delegitimize anyone," he said, while at the same time giving examples of past cases of miscarriages of justice and saying it was not possible to "hide how a part, certainly not all, of the judiciary has behaved in Italian history".
    "'I only intend to defend the institutions by seeking the truth," he concluded. (ANSA).