'Dangerous attacks' over Arianna Meloni says ANM

(ANSA) - ROME, AUG 19 - Premier Giorgia Meloni's claims that methods once used against late premier Silvio Berlusconi are now being used against her sister Arianna are "an umpteenth attack on on the judiciary, aimed at delegitimizing it by hinting at alleged plots," magistrates union ANM said in a note Monday.
    "(This is) a dangerous exercise that weakens the Republican institutions and damages the whole country," said the union of prosecutors and judges.
    Conservative daily Il Giornale said Arianna Meloni, who is also head of the secretariat of her sister's rightwing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, was the subject of unknown probes possibly linked to her involvement in key appointments.
    Premier Meloni has said she considers "very plausible" an editorial published by Milan daily Il Giornale claiming that media hostile to the government, the left and some prosecutors are allegedly scheming against her sister.
    The editorial's headline read: "They want to investigate Arianna Meloni".
    "It is a scheme that has been repeatedly seen, in particular against (ex-premier and Forza Italia founder) Silvio Berlusconi: a system of power which uses any method and any expedient in order to defeat a political enemy that wins a democratic competition at the ballots", Meloni told ANSA over the phone late Sunday, from the resort in Puglia where she is spending her summer holiday.
    After "searching my life and that of every person close to me, without finding anything", she said, "the worst" form of politics is using "paltry and desperate moves", including against her elder sister..
    The premier continued saying that, if such a report were confirmed, and "they have moved on to smear campaigns and the elaboration of theories in hopes of some fanciful investigation against people close to me, starting with my sister Arianna, it would be very grave".
    Meloni added however that "it would also be a good sign" because it would mean that "we are dismantling a system of interests that has been keeping Italy hostage for too many years".
    The editorial penned by il Giornale's editor Alessandro Sallusti cited, among others, media reports on Arianna Meloni's alleged involvement in key public-sector appointments. (ANSA).