Italy's far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, escalates attack on judges
Source: The Guardian
Italys far-right interior minister, Matteo Salvini, escalates attack on judges
Three magistrates singled out over their challenges to governments hardline immigration policies
Angela Giuffrida in Rome and Lorenzo Tondo in Palermo
Thu 6 Jun 2019 18.29 BST First published on Thu 6 Jun 2019 17.35 BST
A simmering row over the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary in Italy has erupted after the far-right interior minister publicly singled out three magistrates who have challenged his hardline anti-immigration policies.
In an escalation of his battle with the judges and the courts, Matteo Salvini said he would ask the state attorney to examine whether the magistrates should have abstained from passing verdicts in cases involving immigrants because their opinions conflict with government policy on security and immigration.
Luciana Breggia, a judge in Florence, and Matilde Betti, a judge in Bologna, had refused to accept an interior ministry appeal against rulings that allowed asylum seekers to be enrolled onto the civil registry of their respective cities. Rosaria Trizzino, the president of Tuscanys regional administrative court, had vetoed the creation of so-called red zones areas cordoned off against petty criminals in Florence.
Salvini said that proof of the womens pro-migrant sympathies could be gleaned from online searches that revealed they had participated in debates about migration and presentations of books on the topic, or collaborated with magazines that focus on law and immigration.
Salvini has previously taken aim at Breggia, suggesting in a Facebook post last week that if she wanted to change laws she should stand for election. More than 4,500 people responded to the post, and many of the comments contained death threats against the judge.
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Read more:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/06/salvini-steps-up-attacks-on-italian-judges-who-challenge-him