The Italian magistrates union ANM on Saturday accused the executive of delegitimising the judiciary, describing the recent censure of a judge's decision in relation to proceedings concerning a junior minister as "incomprehensible".
ANM President Giuseppe Santalucia told the union's central executive committee that sources at Palazzo Chigi had made "a very heavy accusation that strikes at the heart of the judiciary" and that subsequent statements by sources at the justice ministry joined "the voices of delegitimisation".
The issue concerns judicial proceedings underway against Justice Undersecretary Andrea Delmastro, a top exponent of Premier Giorgia Meloni's right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party. Delmastro is under investigation in Rome for allegedly breaking official secrecy rules in relation to revelations made in parliament about the jailed anarchist leader Alfredo Cospito.
On Thursday a preliminary investigations judge threw out a request from prosecutors for the case to be shelved and instead ordered his indictment.
On Thursday evening sources at Palazzo Chigi challenged the decision, describing it as "unusual" and asking whether a part of the judiciary had decided to join the opposition.
The following day sources at the justice ministry weighed in by describing the decision as "unreasonable" and saying it demonstrated the "irrationality" of the justice system, which the government and Justice Minister Carlo Nordio are trying to reform.
"The judiciary has no desire to fuel the confrontation (with the government)," said Santalucia, adding however that it must "react firmly to a muscular policy targeting an institution that provides guarantees".
"It would be a retreat, and we do not retreat when it comes to defending the values of the Constitution," he insisted, adding that magistrates instead wanted to talk to Nordio about how to genuinely improve the justice system.
As they stand, Santalucia said the justice reform bill presented by Nordio - including the controversial separation of the career paths of judges and prosecutors so that they can no longer switch from one side to the another - seem more like a tool used by the government to punish the judiciary for taking decisions that it does not like.
"The suspicion is that the separation of careers and constitutional reform are being bandied about not because it is believed that these will genuinely serve to improve the current system" but as "a measure to punish the judiciary", said Santalucia, "humbly" calling on the government and the majority parties in parliament for a "step change".
"You cannot approach a constitutional reform [...] as a reactive response to a physiological measure taken by a judge that you don't like because it involves someone who is in government," the ANM chief said.
In a unanimously approved document issued later in the day the ANM central executive committee called on the government and its parliamentary majority to respect the prerogatives of the judiciary and recalled that the "separation of the powers of the State" is a "guarantee of the equality of all citizens before the law".
ANM, which represents the majority of Italian magistrates, has repeatedly expressed criticism of the proposed justice reforms, which include a clamp-down on the publication of information obtained from wiretaps, abolishing the crime of abuse of office, cancelling prosecutors' rights to appeal against many minor crimes, and paving the way for the separation of the career paths of prosecutors and judges, a move long demanded by the centre right and its former leader, the late Silvio Berlusconi.
Last month Santalucia claimed that the part of the justice bill stopping prosecutors from appealing against acquittals for less serious crimes is likely to be declared unconstitutional, prompting the minister to accuse magistrates of potentially crossing the line into politics and unduly meddling in political life, breaching the Constitutionally mandated separation of powers between the executive and judiciary branches.
Santalucia, however, rejected suggestions that the ANM wanted to interfere.
"Magistrates and the ANM, which has represented them for over a century, have not only the right but also the duty to speak, to enrich the debate on justice issues," said Santalucia.
"Because this way they broaden the debate and contribute, with their argued and reasoned point of view, to improving the quality of reforms wherever possible. "This is the essence of democratic life," he added.
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