CSM approves protection for Bologna migrant judges

(ANSA) - ROME, NOV 20 - The judiciary's self-governing body, the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM), on Wednesday approved by a wide majority a resolution for the safeguard of judges in Bologna who have referred to the European Court of Justice a new decree listing safe countries for repatriation.
    The safeguard procedure has no juridical effect but represents an official position taken by the CSM on the issue, stigmatizing the harsh reaction of leading government members against the magistrates who took the decision.
    It is the first safeguard procedure approved over the past 15 years during a plenary session of the self-governing body.
    The last instance dated back to 2009 and regarded Raimondo Mesiano, the judge in the so-called Lodo Mondadori case concerning two entrepreneurs, late former premier Silvio Berlusconi and Carlo de Benedetti, and the bid for the ownership of the Arnaldo Mondadori publishing house. After 2009, two other practices reached the plenum, in 2019 and 2021, but did not involve the relationship between the judiciary and decision makers.
    The resolution was approved with 26 votes in favour - including all magistrate members of the CSM - and five against, including the CSM's lay members representing parties in the ruling coalition, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's Brothers of Italy (FdI), Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini's League and Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani's Forza Italia (FI).
    According to the first Commission of the CSM, which first voted the safeguard measure, the Bologna judges' decision was subjected to "harsh statements by leading representatives of institutions" which "were not linked to the juridical issues" outlined in the decision, hinting instead at an "absence of impartiality" of the judges without any "objective evidence".
    The Bologna judges last month referred a measure defining a list of safe countries for repatriation to the EU court to ask whether the principle of the primacy of EU law should prevail if a conflict arises with Italian legislation in relation to an appeal presented by an asylum seeker from Bangladesh.
    The government measure listing 19 countries, including Bangladesh, as safe, said Italian courts cannot rule against it on the basis of an October 4 European Court of Justice sentence that motivated another decision by Rome judges to nix the detention of a group of migrants at a new Italian-run centre in Albania last month.
    The move sparked accusations, including from members of Premier Giorgia Meloni's government, that the judiciary was encroaching the political realm. (ANSA).