The dawn of a new conflict. But the robes risk being divided over the government – Corriere.it

Carlo Nordio is not the first magistrate to enter via Arenula as minister. In 1995, 2008 and 2011 there were the (brief) parentheses of Filippo Mancuso, Luigi Scotti and Francesco Nitto Palma; each for a few months, they didn’t always have serene relationships with their former colleagues. Especially Mancuso, who cultivated hostilities with the pool Milanese of Clean Hands opened by the first Berlusconi government. Nordio’s experience is destined to last longer, but relations with the robes promise to be equally troubled. Although times have changed and the judiciary (at least the one gathered in currents and represented by the National Association of Magistrates) seems less united in its opposition to political power.

Change of season

There are many reasons, and one is the departure (even before his disappearance) of Silvio Berlusconi in the dual role of prime minister under investigation or accused who did not disdain to openly accuse prosecutors and judges, and bend laws and reforms to his personal defensive needs . Having overcome that phase which tightened all the robes to safeguard autonomy and jurisdiction, Nordio is now the expression of a government that has in its program some of the reforms attempted and failed by the leader of Forza Italia. Starting with the “mother” of all the others: the separation of careers between prosecutors and judges, which the minister himself has promised to propose by the end of the year.

It will be a long journey, because it implies changes to the Constitution, and pending that goal yesterday the Keeper of the Seals put on the table a first bill that the magistrates don’t like. To the prosecutors, even before the ANM; those heard in Parliament or by the media almost unanimously rejected the abolition of the abuse of office. And the president of the ANM Giuseppe Santalucia wanted to underline that “not listening to the technical opinion of highly qualified colleagues in terms of investigations seems an ill-advised choice”.

But that of the president – an exponent of Area, one of the currents of the left judiciary together with the democratic judiciary – is it and will it remain the position of the whole ANM? The current Giunta brings together Area, the «centrists» of Unit for the constitution and the right of independent Judiciary; a “government” that in the face of a conflict with an inevitably political flavor could see its unity crack.

distinct locations

The secretary of Mi Angelo Piraino, questioned a few days ago on the repeal of the abuse of office, before saying that “the judiciary can certainly make a contribution of a technical nature” (a position reaffirmed yesterday by the secretary of the ANM Casciaro, also di Mi), premised that “these are discretionary choices that are the responsibility of politics”. An obvious thing that someone could however read as a distinction from the position of the president of the ANM. All the more so on the eve of the assembly on the USS case (the Russian claimed by the US who escaped house arrest, for which Nordio has initiated disciplinary action against three judges in Milan) which confirmed the state of agitation without the strike.

On that matter, the ANM remained firm and united in accusing the government of «attacking to the independence of the judiciary for contingent political reasons, in order to overcome one impasse diplomatic”. As for the reforms, it was limited to denouncing an “increased concern for the constitutional reforms that aim to modify the structure of the judiciary”.

Not a word on the abuse of office and other code changes passed yesterday since government and originated from the ministerial offices where Nordio has called to work various robes belonging to Mi: current that won the last elections for the CSM and that colleagues from the other groups suspect has a direct line not so much with the minister as with the undersecretary of Presidency of the Council Alfredo Mantovano. He too is a magistrate, a former deputy and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s trusted man for everything that pertains to the problems of justice.

The Piave line

If the suspicions were even partially founded, it would mean having a sort of government bank within the ANM that would curb and limit the impact of the protests against the reforms. Starting with those that have just been launched. The announced separation of careers is a line of the Piave where even the “moderates” of Mi have so far established themselves. The next steps will tell if in the future it will still be for the entire judiciary, or just a part.

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