Premier Giorgia Meloni's cabinet on
Wednesday approved a controversial bill to separate career
paths of prosecutors and judges so members of the judiciary can
no longer switch between the two roles.
The Constitutional reform bill, drafted by Justice Minister
Carlo Nordio, also creates a high court to discipline members of
the judiciary and changes the make-up of the judiciary's
self-governing body, the CSM, and changes the way CSM justices
are electing, using a draw process.
Nordio hailed his reform and he dismissed assertions that it was
an attempt to increase the government's power over prosecutors.
"The judiciary is an autonomous (professional) order,
independent of any other power, and it is composed of the
magistrates on the judging career path and those on the
prosecuting career path," Nordio said of his Constitutional
reform bill "We have given Constitutional importance to the fact
that a prosecutor's office is, must be, and will remain,
independent of any interference by the executive power, and of
any pressure from other bodies.
"It enjoys, and will continue to enjoy, the same guarantees of
independence as a judging magistrate".
He said the changes to the CSM will put an end to the chronic
factionalism that has beset Italy's notoriously politicised
judiciary as seen in some influence-peddling scandals of recent
years.
"Breaking this link, which led to a whole series of anomalies,
via a draw was our main task," he said.
Meloni hailed her government's courage in approving the bill.
"Today the Italian government has fulfilled another commitment
it had made to the Italian people," Meloni said in a video
message after a cabinet meeting.
"We had written in the centre-right manifesto that we would
reform the justice system, and so today the cabinet approved a
Constitutional bill to finally have a fairer and more efficient
justice system.
"In recent months many said and wrote that we would never have
the courage to present this reform, which had been waited for
for decades.
"Evidently they still do not know our determination.
"When it is right to do something in the interests of Italy and
the Italian people, we simply do it.
"But launching this reform, after 30 years of talking about it,
is certainly a historic achievement"
The National Association of Magistrates (ANM), the judiciary's
union, has criticized the reform, saying it will weaken the
judiciary, and is set to call a strike.
"Every possible initiative will be weighed by the collegial
bodies," said ANM President Giuseppe Santalucia, answering a
question from ANSA on the already pre-announced strike plan.
Nordio said the magistrates should accept the verdict of popular
sovereignty, saying that Italian voters had implicitly backed
the reforms as they were part of the winning centre-right
coalition's manifesto in autumn 2022.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
