Magistrates must be impartial says Crosetto in judicial row

(ANSA) - ROME, DEC 1 - Magistrates must be impartial, Defence Minister Guido Crosetto told the House Friday in response to a furore sparked by his claim that a leftwing faction of the judiciary is the only real threat to Italy's rightwing government.
    Crosetto said earlier this week that he was happy to report to parliament after sparking the furore by warning of elements within the judiciary forming "judicial opposition" to Premier Giorgia Meloni's government in an interview published in Corriere della Sera on Sunday.
    In the interview, the minister was 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," said Crosetto, a member of Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party.
    The interview sparked an angry reaction from Italian magistrates union ANM, with its president Giuseppe Santalucia accusing Crosetto of spreading "fake news which has no foundation and hurts the institutions".
    Santalucia called on Crosetto to "dispel suspicions and shadows".
    Opposition parties also moved to condemn the remarks, with ex-premier and 5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Giuseppe Conte saying they amounted to accusing part of the judiciary of being "subversive" and many MPs calling for Crosetto to report to the Lower House as soon as possible.
    In his statements to the House Friday, Crosetto said that magistrates must remain "third parties".
    He said "I shall open a topic that we must discuss sooner or later: this clash between politics and the judiciary must end.
    "I have found some magistrates - I have heard (centre-left) Area exponents - who see in the government an attack on the judiciary, almost as if they do not want it to work.
    "There are those who have said that the role of the judiciary must be to balance the will of the people.
    "But whoever has responsibility must be impartial: imagine if a general or a prefect had uttered (the magistrates') claim".
    Crosetto also insisted that he was very willing to address the issues he had raised, denying the centre-left opposition Democratic Party's (PD) assertion that he was shying away from the question.
    He said he trusted magistrates but there had been "very serious interventions" on the part of some allegedly biased officials against the government. (ANSA).