The secretary general of the
judiciary's union, the National Association of Magistrates
(ANM), said Monday that a planned government reform to separate
the career paths of judges and prosecutors so they can no longer
switch between the two would radically change the Constitution
by altering the relationship between the State's powers, laying
the ground for a possible political influence over judicial
power.
ANM Secretary General Salvatore Casciaro, told State broadcaster
Rai Tre's Agorà program that the union was sounding the alarm
as, "over the past 50 years, perhaps, no reform has ever
radically overturned the physiognomy of the Constitution" in
such a way "by altering the existing relationship between the
powers of the State and setting the ground for a possible
influence of judicial power".
Meanwhile ANM President Giuseppe Santalucia told Sky Tg24 on
Monday that the reform will "worsen the service" provided by
magistrates to citizens and "weaken the framework of
guarantees".
The separation of career paths will also create "a giant
prosecutor who will be necessarily closer to the executive.
"In many countries, this is the beginning" of "criminal
prosecution being influenced by political power - a road that
questions the principle of equality".
Santalucia also said a draw process introduced by the reform to
elect the judiciary's self-governing body, the Superior Council
of Magistrates (CSM), which its architect Justice Minister Carlo
Nordio says is aimed at breaking the "pathological" hold of
factions on the two allegedly interlocking groups of judges and
prosecutors in what he says is a highly politicised judicial
world, would "deprive magistrates of the active and passive
electoral vote.
"It's like saying: you are unable to elect your
representatives", said Santalucia.
"The draw process is not a cure-all and humiliates the
judiciary, the only" categoty that would be "deprived of this
right", said Santalucia.
Italian magistrates will strike on February 27 against the
planned reform, which received its first green light from the
Lower House on Tursday, one of four parliamentary votes
necessary to approve the constitutional reform bill.
On that day, the start of the judicial year in Italy, the ANM
said it will ask its members to leave the hall when Justice
Minister Carlo Nordio inaugurates proceedings.
They will also don a tricolour cockade and display placards
bearing excepts from the Italian Constitution which underline
why the controversial reform is, in their view, a breach of the
founding charter which stresses the independence of the
judiciary in Italy's balance of powers with the executive and
parliamentary branches.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
