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.
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