'Magistrates not against government' says ANM president

The president of judiciary's union,
Giuseppe Santalucia, said Monday that magistrates were not
against the government but vied to defend the "autonomy and
independence" of the judiciary after government members
including the justice minister accused judges of "overstepping
their powers" when a Rome court nixed the detention of 12
migrants at a new Italian-run hosting centre for migrants in
Albania and Premier Giorgia Meloni posted an extract of a
prosecutor's email about her, implying members of the judiciary
had an agenda against the cabinet.

   
"We are not against the government, it would be absurd to think
that the judiciary, an institution of the country, is against an
institution of the country like political power", Santalucia
told Rai3's Agorà program.

   
The ANM president went on to say that, "it is not an
institutional clash that we are seeking, we tend to defend the
autonomy and the independence of the judicial order".

   
Late on Sunday, Santalucia also slammed the "malicious"
interpretation of a passage of an email written by Cassation
Court State Attorney Marco Patarnello, noting it was taken out
of context when it was first published by conservative daily Il
Tempo on Sunday and then posted by Premier Giorgia Meloni on
social media.

   
The extract in which Patarnello, a member of left-wing
magistrates faction Magistratura Democratica (Democratic
Magistrature, MD), said "Meloni has no pending judicial
investigations and thus does not act for personal interest but
for a political vision and this makes her much stronger, and
also much more dangerous in her action", was sparked by "concern
over the attacks against a number of judicial offices for the
simple fact of deciding according to the law", noted the ANM
chief.

   
The email, which was reportedly written the day after the Rome
court did not validate the detention of migrants in Albania
based on a recent European Court of Justice ruling, sparking a
political controversy, "only highlighted the need to solve
internal divisions to defend the prerogatives of magistrates and
the jurisdiction itself".

   
"Indulging in other malicious interpretations does not
contribute to making the institutional climate more serene",
said Santalucia.

   
On Sunday, President Sergio Mattarella said "institutions belong
and respond to the entire community and everyone must be able to
recognize themselves in them".

   
Meanwhile on Monday, Deputy Premier and Transport Minister said
Patarnello "should not be in his place anymore".

   
"If someone has mistaken a tribunal for a social centre and a
place of political vengeance they have chosen the wrong job,
quite simply", he said.

   

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA