Abuse of office, the real battle in the majority is played in Senato-Corriere.it

Between a more aggressive statement and another more conciliatory, the time has come to play the game of justice in Parliament. Where should a clear result come from. A month ago the cabinet launched the Nordio bill on some penal and procedural reforms (from the abolition of the abuse of office to new rules on the dissemination of eavesdropping, arrest of suspects and warrant notices) and since then a flood of words has flooded the political debate. Lastly, causing it to overflow to other issues: from the separation of careers between judges and prosecutors to the remodulation of the external competition in mafia association. Creating further fibrillations, aggravated by individual and distinct legal cases unexpectedly interpreted by the government even as electoral initiatives of the judiciary. Which stirred up the waters even more.

The reserves

But now – or in any case immediately after the summer break, if we don’t manage to get to the heart of the issues sooner – we necessarily have to move from words to deeds with the parliamentary process of that bill, which should start in the Senate. There is the Justice Commission chaired by the Northern League Julia Bongiornowho on behalf of his party had immediately raised his objections to the norm-symbol of the reform: the abolition of abuse of office which, together with the restriction of the illicit trade in influencecan create a void destined to be filled with the prosecution of other and more serious crimes.

For this reason the League had said sa condition of a contextual and overall review of crimes against the public administration; another complex matter, which the technicians of the Ministry of Justice have already put on the agenda and which is combined with the perplexities advanced at the Quirinale for the text fired in mid-June by the government, expressed by the head of state to Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in the interview on Thursday

If the abolition tout court of the abuse of office will not be modified or integrated in the course of the parliamentary debate, there is the risk that after its approval the law is returned by Colle to the senderbecause the contrast with the international anti-corruption conventions signed by Italy would turn into a conflict with the Constitution, which conditions the legislative power of the Chambers to respect the Community legal order and international obligations.

The correctives

For weeks, Minister Nordio has been struggling to explain what the Italian penal code provides for an arsenal such as to allow the waiver of abuse of office, but there are a couple of issues linked precisely to that crime (such as abuse of power by a public official or failure to comply with the duty of abstention) which would remain outside the punishment required by Europe and the UN. Furthermore, the figures heralded to certify the uselessness of the provision (nine convictions against 5,418 proceedings opened in 2021), as well as the fear of the signature by local administrators, refer to the old formulation of the abuse, last modified in 2020. Since then it has become much more difficult to contest that crime (only for violations of the law, and when there is no margin of discretion in the decisions), the which makes it even less understandable to decide to abolish it before evaluating the effects of those changes.

The majority willing to take the feared risk at the Quirinale? At the starting blocks of the parliamentary process, Come on Italy openly and clearly sided with Nordio and its drastic choice, the League maintains the initial reserves and the Brothers of Italy remains in an apparently median position, waiting for a more precise indication to arrive from Palazzo Chigi.

Francesco Paolo Sisto, the Deputy Minister of Justice of Forza Italia, explains that an agreement was reached in the ministry and ratified by the Council of Ministers, in the majority I do not register fibrillation but the sovereign Parliament. FI can count too on external support of Italy alive, since Renzi is increasingly lined up on the same positions in matters of justice, while in the premier’s party a clear gap has emerged between the Minister of Justice Charles Nordio and the undersecretary at Palazzo Chigi Alfredo Mantovano, made explicit by the stop of the second to the ambitions of the first on the external competition in mafia association. In which yesterday the minister Guido Crosetto he sided with the Keeper of the Seals.

The other issues

But the reform of the mafia’s external competition is not in the government’s timetable, recalls Sisto; unlike the separation of careers, argument intended to reignite the confrontation-clash with the judiciary. Which will be harsh, but it is a constitutional reform that will necessarily take longer. The topical issue remains the Nordio bill which is about to arrive at Palazzo Madamawith all its load of problems inside and outside the government.

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