Renzi blasts M5S, which replies in kind

(ANSA) - Rome, August 21 - Members of the opposition 5-Star Movement (M5S) on Thursday refused to meet with Justice Minister Andrea Orlando to discuss the government's judicial reforms, citing "disgust" over the government's dealings with ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi and sparking a spat with Premier Matteo Renzi.
    "They would negotiate with terrorists (from Islamic State fundamentalist militia ISIS), but they won't talk to government," Renzi tweeted. Orlando, a member of the governing Democratic Party (PD), is discussing reforms to Italy's justice system, a topic on the agenda when the cabinet meets on August 29.
    But Senators and members of the Lower House belonging to the anti-establishment M5S said that they are disgusted with Renzi and his government over an earlier pact reached with Berlusconi and his Forza Italia (FI) party on Constitutional and electoral reform.
    Renzi last month unveiled an ambitious 12-point justice reform plan he hopes to see passed in September.
    The reforms would simplify civil law to cut the average time for a civil case to about one year in the court of first instance, as well as halving a huge backlog of cases to remove a major block on foreign investment in Italy.
    Italy's snail-paced penal justice system would also be streamlined.
    As well, in a bid to address public concern over waves of corruption scandals, the reform would restore false accounting to the status of a full-blown crime from the misdemeanour, non-custodial status Berlusconi had reduced it to. The M5S later on Thursday replied to the premier from the blog of movement founder Beppe Grillo.
    "We won't take lessons from a convict's crony," an M5S MP wrote in reference to Berlusconi and Renzi.