Italian magistrates union ANM reacted
angrily on Sunday after Defence Minister Guido Crosetto said in
an interview that he considered opposition from elements within
the judiciary to be the main threat Premier Giorgia Meloni's
government faces.
"The only major danger is from those who have always felt they
are an antagonistic faction and have always undermined
centre-right governments - judicial opposition," Crosetto told
Il Corriere della Sera.
"I've 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".
Late ex-premier and former centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi
often said that the many court cases he faced, only one of which
led to a definitive conviction, were staged by
politically-motivated elements within the judiciary.
ANM President Giuseppe Santalucia accused Crosetto of spreading
"fake news which has no foundation and hurts the institutions.
"It is misleading to portray the judiciary as a
political-party-like opposition," he said.
The opposition, centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was critical
too.
"We are astonished by the statements made today by Minister
Crosetto," said Debora Serracchiani, the PD's justice chief.
"If the minister knows something that endangers national
security, he should say so.
"Otherwise, this government should stop making veiled threats
and complaining of unfounded conspiracies in a bid to hide the
difficulties of the (2024) budget (bill)".
Later on Sunday Crosetto said he was "astonished" by the
reaction to the interview.
"First of all, because I have done everything but threaten or
delegitimise 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.
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